"Staffing pressures on brecon and the support they deserve"

Today Brecon Ward was being over run by staff who do not work on here, but there were some regulars on but it is not acceptable to leave the ward dangerously low on staff. Especially when you consider what has happened on here in recent months with staff been assaulted.

It is not fair that just because the CQC are here staff are made to feel pressurised into getting patients up who need higher levels of staff due to their associated risk factors.

At tea time the head of nursing came to the ward to help out, it is nice to see this from senior managers as they don't seem to come down to Brecon unless there has been a major incident.

I will say this though, this member of staff does her best to support all the staff and patients in the hospital but as everyone is aware she cannot do everything herself. This is the support staff and patients respect as it feels like senior managers are trying their hardest it is just a shame that the CQC are not picking everything the hospital is not doing. There are a lot of positives but they seem to be focussing on all the negatives . This kind of attitude is not helping anyone as when staff are encouraging patients to see the positives the CQC are undermining them.

I as a patient would rather be receiving help from the staff instead of staff needing support. How do people expect staff to be able to support us when some of them are at breaking point themselves. It is not right to see the people who are trying to help us are suffering just as much as a patient.

I feel that the CQC and the senior management need to speak to the staff and patients without fear of reprisals. If staff were offered better support then they would feel better in themselves which in turn will make it better for patients.

Nursing is fundamentally about a hands on approach. If staff are always having to do reports all the time then how are they supposed to interact with the patients.  

If we are not careful this is a very real threat to under pressure staff at Rampton. Staff here should not be pressured and  backed into a corner. Take some time to think about your colleagues, they need your support not threatening emails and ir1s when they are already at breaking point.