A librarian was allegedly forced to help cover a shift at a high-security Lanarkshire hospital amid a staffing crisis.
Dieticians, occupational therapists and psychologists have also been brought into The State Hospital in Carstairs Junction, according to whistleblowers. It's claimed hospital chiefs are desperate for volunteers to help on patient escorts outside the facility or provide back-up when other workers are not available, the Daily Record reports.
An alleged recruitment shortage has caused the staffing crisis which whistleblowers fear puts employees and patients at risk and is 'an accident waiting to happen'.
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A source said: "Other staff disciplines working in the wards to help fill the deficit is an accident waiting to happen. We keep being told there will never be an incident like what happened in 1976 but something like that or worse is on the cards.
"Management say that was then and we live in a different time now and that will never happen."
The whistleblower said the librarian was basically a tick on a sheet to make the numbers "look good."
They said: "It was earlier this month. She was just considered part of the ward staff and expected to do what other staff do.
"She has no experience of ward working and if something had happened she wouldn't have been able to do anything."
Another source said: "Patients are basically being left locked in their rooms and I'm sure the mental health welfare commission are unaware of the full impact this is having on patients. They are struggling to recruit new staff due to the ridiculous shift pattern that was implemented.
"It used to be four on and two off but some new starts can work a full seven days without any breaks as they don't get paid for them. The hospital is rural so many staff have to travel a fair distance to get there and coupled with the hours there is no work life balance.
"Even the promise of £4000 secure bonus payment isn't enough to entice new workers. It is not going to surprise anyone who works there if someone is seriously hurt, patient or staff member.
"Something needs to be done."
Among the patients currently housed there is James Dunleavy, an “untreatable psychopath”, who killed his mum Philomena at his Edinburgh home in 2013. Killers Robert Mone and Thomas McCulloch went on a rampage in the facility in 1976 and left three people dead, including a nurse, patient and police officer.
A spokeswoman for Carstairs said: "It is a priority for the State Hospital to ensure the delivery of safe and effective patient care, and to make the necessary temporary adjustments to achieve this. Clinical adjustments are pre-planned to maintain staff and patient safety at all times.
“Within the State Hospital we have well-rehearsed plans and procedures in place to ensure our patients continue to receive the care and treatment they require, and these have been applied consistently across the course of the pandemic to ensure front line patient care is prioritised. All our clinicians are members of multi-disciplinary teams, and trained to work in front line patient care.
"During peaks in Covid absence, this sometimes means that we need to deploy them to where they are most needed across the Hospital. Additionally, significant steps have been taken to maintain our nursing workforce to its funded establishment through proactive nursing recruitment campaigns and the introduction of a Supplementary Staffing Register.
"We will continue to manage our workforce resources in the most flexible way, as we continue to live with Covid-19.”
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