More than 160 nurses are being recruited from overseas to supplement staffing levels at Liverpool’s hospitals.
Medical professionals from the United Arab Emirates and south India are to be drafted in to increase nursing capacity within Liverpool University Hospitals Foundation Trust (LUHFT). David Melia, chief nurse, confirmed the recruitment drive as the board met at the new Royal Liverpool Hospital this morning.
A report to the LUHFT board on safe staffing said a turning point for staffing levels had been the opening of the new city centre hospital and transfer of clinical services to Aintree University Hospital.
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Mr Melia said the recruitment of new staff would “support clinical services through the testing times of the year” and “peaks of attrition.” The chief nurse conceded there would “always be competition” between medical trusts to recruit staff and said elements such as where people live and convenience to a location would be a factor in securing services.
The report added how staffing challenges had emerged at Aintree owing to the move of clinical services as well as the number of escalation wards remaining open. It said: “To this end, and with the support of temporary staffing team, we have block booked several registered agency nurses to Aintree, to temporarily fill some of these vacancy gaps while recruitment takes place and to ensure those areas sending staff to work in escalation are afforded some back fill.”
Mr Melia said 106 nurses were now going through initial training and preparation for work within LUHFT by October. The chief nurse said he hopes for an additional 60 staff by the end of the calendar year.
The report added: “High patient acuity and dependency linked to low staffing levels can have a profound impact on the quality of patient care and while Trust wide establishments have been reviewed and reset, there remain a number of challenges in being able to provide sufficient numbers of staff as planned, as a result of the following. Nursing vacancies have recently increased as a result of the additional nursing resource being placed into the ledger following the nurse staffing review.”
The board was also updated on performance around ambulance handover times at the Royal and Aintree hospitals. Since December, times for transferring patients into hospital had decreased from an average of 66 minutes to below 30.
Dan Grimes, director of operations at the Royal, said: “The more we can do to get crews back on the road the better.” His Aintree counterpart Peter Turkington added: “It’s important we get acute medical patients into correct care urgently rather than them spending time in emergency departments.”
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