A NURSE at York Hospital has described the NHS as ‘broken’ and says patients are ‘being let down every day’ – as The Press can reveal that no fewer than 1,421 patients were kept waiting in York’s A&E unit for 12 hours or more in just one month recently.

That figure was sharply up on the 1,011 patients forced to wait for 12 hours or more in York A&E in the same period a year previously.

In response to a series of Freedom of Information questions tabled by the Press, York Hospitals Trust managers have also admitted that:

  • 499 York Hospitals Trust nurses or other medical staff have taken time off for stress or other mental health-related reasons in the last six months
  • In a bid to plug staff vacancies, the hospitals trust spent £9.5 million on expensive Agency nurses and a further £18.6 million on ‘bank’ nurses in the last year – as well as more than £1.9 million recruiting nurses and other medical staff internationally.

The figures suggest a picture of exhausted staff and an organisation struggling to cope.

That was confirmed by the York Hospital nurse, who spoke to The Press on condition of anonymity. “I have never known staff morale to be so low,” they said.

A busy hospital ward - staff morale is at an all-time low because of pressure, says a York Hospital nurseA busy hospital ward - staff morale is at an all-time low because of pressure, says a York Hospital nurse (Image: Peter Byrne/ PA)

“I feel that patients are being let down every day. That is demoralising. The NHS is broken and we cannot carry on the way we are.

“We used to get winter pressures – but since Covid, those pressures never leave us. We are getting winter pressures in July.”

The number of staff taking time off from York Hospitals Trust for stress or other mental health-related issues was a clear indication of the constant pressure staff were under, the nurse said.

The Trust – which runs both York and Scarborough hospitals, as well as smaller hospitals and rehab units in Selby, Malton, Easingwold and elsewhere – stresses that, thanks to ‘good international and domestic recruitment’, its nurse vacancy rate has fallen from 11 per cent of all posts a year ago to just 6.1 per cent now.

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But the nurse who spoke to The Press said that, while the trust was spending millions on recruiting internationally to try to plug staff vacancies, the UK was failing to train enough nursing staff at home so the NHS could recruit domestically.

In the past, nurses got grants to study, the nurse said. Now, they pay £9,000 a year to do a nursing degree – and are thousands of pounds in debt by the time they graduate. That’s a big disincentive, the nurse said. “Is it any wonder we cannot recruit?”

York Hospitals Trust says it is making every effort to support the health and well-being of its staff.

Staffing levels on individual hospital wards were reviewed on a ‘shift-by-shift’ basis, it said – and staffing levels could be increased depending on the number of patients on a ward, and the complexity of their condition.

The trust said it employs 115 mental health first aiders to help look after staff mental health – and runs regular staff health, mental health and health-promotion events.

Staff also have access to occupational health advice and a ‘confidential care service’ available 24/7 every day of the year.

But York Central MP Rachael Maskell, who worked as an NHS physiotherapist before becoming a Labour MP, said: “Staff in the NHS are burnt out.

York Central MP Rachael MaskellYork Central MP Rachael Maskell (Image: Supplied)

“These brilliant professionals, who looked after us through Covid and continue to do so through the never ending crisis are completely physically, mentally and emotionally exhausted.

“With the level of continuous pressure, staff know that if there were more of them, things could be so much better for them and their patients.

“The thing that breaks a clinician most is knowing you cannot give the care you trained to give.”

She said the new Labour government was determined to rebuild the NHS – as the Blair government had after 1997.

“Things are worse now (than then), but Labour is determined to rebuild our NHS, as we did then,” she said.

 

The cost of using agency nurses to plug staffing gaps

USING bank and agency nurses to fill in when there are not enough staff nurses to man shifts is expensive – and wasteful of scarce NHS cash.

That is because the rate paid to a bank or agency nurse to cover a shift is much higher than that paid to a staff nurse of the same grade.

Hospitals like York usually have an internal ‘bank’ of nurses prepared to work extra shifts – for better pay. These are often referred to as bank nurses. Agency nurses, meanwhile, are staff provided by an external agency.

A Band 5 staff nurse at the top of their band can expect to be paid £17.69 an hour, according to pay scales set out by NHS Employers for 2023/4. A Band 5 bank nurse at the same point on the pay scale, meanwhile, can expect to be paid £23.12 an hour – while an equivalent agency nurse would receive £24.06 an hour. There would also be a payment to the agency who supplied them.

Because of staff shortages, York Hospital admits it spent £9.5 million on agency nurses and HCAs last year – and £18.6 million on bank nurses. Without knowing the grades of bank and agency staff brought in, it is impossible to work out how much exactly the hospital trust would have saved had it been able to fill all its shifts with regular staff nurses– but it would have run into millions of pounds.