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News & Media

Media Release

Date: 24 June 2014

Safer Staffing

The RUH has published data on staffing levels as part of Safer Staffing – a national initiative which aims to provide an open and transparent account of staffing levels in hospitals.

As part of the scheme, all hospitals in England are required to provide data for the number of hours they planned for nurses, midwives and care staff to work on inpatient wards and the actual number of hours worked by these staff.

The RUH website has a dedicated Safer Staffing page which displays a summary of staffing levels across all inpatient wards. A full account of the data is also available to download from the page, together with monthly reports which will highlight the work being done in response to any areas of concern.

Whilst the data will serve as a useful snapshot of staffing levels, it will not, by itself, provide a full picture of staffing at the hospital. Though we would expect the actual staffing level to be close to the planned level, if a ward is below 100%, it doesn't mean it is understaffed or unsafe. Likewise, if a ward is above the planned level, it doesn't necessarily mean a ward is overstaffed. Planned and actual staffing levels often vary due to the need to build a degree of flexibility into the staffing on some wards. It is vitally important to understand the context and nuances of the data.

In addition to displaying monthly figures online, daily staffing levels are also displayed on special boards in all inpatient wards.

View staffing levels on the Safe Staffing page of our website:

ENDS

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