York Hospital: 'Our challenges in emergency care continue'

The Hospitals Trust also revealed that in the last six months, 499 nurses or other medical staff took off because of stress or other mental health-related issues: and that it was spending millions of pounds on bank and agency nurses to cover absences or vacancies.

In the wake of the revelations, The Press put a series of follow-up questions to York Hospitals Trust bosses. Here are the responses we received…

Q: What is being done to bring down waiting times in York A&E?

A: Like hospitals across the country, our challenges in urgent and emergency care continue, with no indication that demand is reducing. In May we saw a rise of 5 per cent on the 19,983 A&E visits recorded during April, and 4 per cent more than the 20,196 patients seen in May 2023. This mirrors the national position, with NHS England reporting that last month emergency departments nationwide saw more attendances than in any other June.

When people attend the emergency department, we conduct a preliminary assessment to determine the urgency of their need for treatment. This helps us prioritise patients, so that we see the most seriously unwell people first. This means some patients spend longer in the emergency department and we are sorry for this.

Q: In the last year alone, almost £2m was spent recruiting international staff. Is it not possible to recruit enough staff in the UK?

A: The NHS has always benefited from overseas recruitments International recruitment does have a cost to the Trust (however), so we have also been focusing on increasing our recruitment of nurses who have trained with us. We have over 100 pre-registered nurses due to join us later this year, which means we have been able to reduce the number of nurses we will recruit from overseas.

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Q: Bank and agency nurses are paid more than staff nurses. What measures, if any, is the Trust taking to try to reduce the use of bank and agency nurses?

A: Temporary agency and bank workers play an important role in ensuring staffing numbers remain at a level that provides the best possible care for patients, particularly when covering short term gaps such as sickness absence.

We are working hard to reduce our spend agency staff, which is reducing month on month. Our focus is to continue to reduce staff turnover by retaining our staff. Our current turnover is at a record low for the Trust. Our registered nurse vacancy rate was 11 per cent in July 2023, in July 2024 it is 6.1 per cent.

A busy hospital ward (Image: Jeff Moore/PA Wire)

Q: Have wards at York Hospital been left staffed under minimum staffing levels?

A: In May, the most recent data available, no wards at York Hospital went below the recommended staffing levels for registered nurse; one ward went below the recommended staffing levels for healthcare support workers. Staffing is reviewed on a shift-by-shift basis and staffing may be increased to reflect the number of patients on the ward.

Q: How is staff morale, and what measures are being taken to improve it?

A: The position is difficult across the whole of the NHS. We are working to improve how it feels to work in our Trust through actively listening and engaging with staff to identify what needs to improve to make a difference.

We continue to support our workforce with a range of initiatives including a broad range of staff health and wellbeing services.