Hospital staff warn sick kids are at risk over cuts

Helen Puttick Health Correspondent

15 Jan 2011

Young patients could be put at risk because of plans to cut the number of nurses working in the intensive care unit of Scotland’s busiest children’s hospital, staff have claimed.

Nurses working at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Yorkhill, Glasgow, are worried that children needing life-saving operations will be forced to wait or be sent to England because the hospital can no longer deal with them.

They have now written to politicians, including Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon, raising fears about moves to redeploy up to 18 specially trained intensive care staff.

They say this is equivalent to losing three staff every shift and would put the number of nurses in the unit below recommended standards.

Yorkhill is the only hospital in Scotland which offers heart operations and ECMO – a procedure to oxygenate the blood – for children.

It is understood moves to redeploy intensive care nurses began amid concern about a “critical” shortage of nurses in the Southern General’s neonatal unit for sick babies.

Originally there was an expectation that staff would be moved to the neonatal wards on January 5 but the Royal College of Nursing intervened before Christmas and the nurses have not yet been relocated.

Some insiders also believe it is because the unit has been full to capacity recently, with children seriously ill due to swine flu among those being treated.

One Yorkhill nurse told The Herald: “The intensive care nurses deal with a lot of stressful situations. They have a lot of complex care and complex drugs to give. There are staff floating around on the unit to help. If that is not the case the pressure will increase on nurses at the bedside.

“I find it very worrying because I think the added stress could mean an increase in mistakes.”

She said children on ventilators required one-to-one nursing and if the hospital could not provide this then patients would be sent elsewhere. “That could affect the care because transporting an intensive care patient is not an easy thing to do,” she said. “It is also much harder for families and parents to deal with if they are having to go down to England.”

She added: “The Scottish Government said that NHS cuts would not affect the frontline staff. How can you get more frontline than an intensive care unit?”

Labour health spokeswoman Jackie Baillie is among the politicians approached by anxious nurses. “This process is being driven by budget cuts and I am worried that removing beds and 18 staff from intensive care will cause a real problem,” she said.

“The NHS is already under strain due to winter pressures. But in addition to the problems caused by the cold weather we are also seeing a significant rise in flu cases, with swine flu the dominant strain. This means that children are particularly at risk.

“Across the UK there has been an increase in the number of deaths from swine flu, so removing staff from the intensive care unit at Yorkhill is incomprehensible.”

Anne Thomson, RCN Officer for Greater Glasgow and Clyde, said there was a national shortage of neonatal intensive care nurses and the situation at the Southern General highlighted the urgency of the situation.

She said: “This proposal to rotate nurses from Yorkhill to the Southern General has come out of the blue but we will work with members and the board to find a satisfactory local solution to this national problem.

“When proposals to change roles in this way emerge they cause immense stress for the staff concerned but I would like to reassure our members that should the proposal go ahead, it will only do so if adequate support and training is put in place. Whatever happens, the health board must make patient safety absolutely paramount.”

NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said in a statement that staff at the intensive care and neonatal units had always worked closely together.

It continued: “We are currently in the process of reviewing these arrangements to ensure we have the right balance and mix of nursing skills as we move towards the opening of the new children’s hospital.

“No final decision has been taken to formally transfer ITU staff at the Royal Hospital for Sick Children to any other service and any such changes will only be made after full consultation with the staff concerned.”

The board added: “We can give an absolute assurance that ITU services will not be compromised. This review is about ensuring we have the right balance of specialist staff wherever and whenever they are needed during periods of fluctuating demand.”

Reproduced with permission of The Herald and Times Group Ltd.