Birmingham hospital issues alert as it cannot maintain safe intensive care nursing staff levels

University Hospitals Birmingham has warned doctors it cannot maintain safe nursing staff levels in intensive care due to a rise in sickness levels and increasing numbers of coronavirus patients.

The trust currently has nearly 1,500 staff members off work, with over 43 per cent of absences linked to Covid-19.

Earlier in the week, the trust said it had 555 coronavirus patients across three hospital sites, with 52 patients in critical care. At its peak in April, the hospital saw 708 patients with over 170 in critical care.

The message sent to intensive care doctors said “The trust Covid admissions have continued to rise with now over 550 Covid positive patients across the three sites. Our Covid numbers in ITU have also risen with 27 at Queen Elizabeth, 18 at Birmingham Heartlands Hospital and seven at Good Hope Hospital. We are expecting the numbers both in the trust and ITU to continue to rise.”

Regarding nurse staffing levels, the messaged warned “It is the nursing staff that have been under the most pressure – we declared a Critcon Level 3 as a trust on Christmas Eve as we were unable to maintain nursing ratios due to sickness levels and we have remained at Critcon 3.”

A spokesperson from the trust said “Staffing ratios are flexed up and down constantly across the sites in line with patient dependency to ensure the safest levels of care for all of our patients can be maintained.

“Staffing is reviewed at least three times per day. A number of strategies are being used to support staffing in ITU, including using bank/agency staff and redeploying non ITU staff who have additional training in ITU settings to support patient care.”

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Posted by Karen Motley, Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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