"The Ward"

Dear Viczt55, thanks for taking the time to post a story. All feedback is greatly received and is always appreciated. It's great to hear that you find the ward is friendly and the staff are nice. I understand your concerns with ward safety and believe that anyone residing or coming onto a ward should feel safe and made to feel welcome.

You will be aware that enhanced support on the ward can fluctuate in response to the occasional fluctuating needs. As a service we ensure that we are responsive.

I would like to expand a little on what measures are already in place.

To support the nursing staff planning we work in accordance to a nationally recognised workforce planning model, called 'the Hurst Model'. In a nutshell this model measures and calculates the nursing needs of the ward taking into consideration various factors including; environment, individual activity, clinical acuity, planned annual leave, training, occupancy and enhanced support. The resulting calculation provides us with two figures; the 'optimum' and the 'safe' nursing numbers. We always plan to the greater 'optimum' number. This is the same across the hospital.

The Nurse Manager will be able to provide you with the current nursing figures that we plan to on a daily basis and I'll ask for this to be accessible to all.

Staff planning is arranged well in advance to address any foreseeable demand (annual leave, training, enhanced support) with the Nurse Managers and Clinical Nurse Leaders reviewing this on a regular basis. The IPU works closely together to redeploy staff resource where possible.

Further to this planned approach we also have a daily duty bleep holder (duty manager) who the wards report into multiple times a day. This person works closely with other duty bleep holders across the hospital site to address staffing vacancies in relation to changing clinical need.

To support intermittent and unplanned (e.g. sickness) staffing demands we have an in-house service called WorkChoice who provide a temporary and ad-hoc workforce solution to all wards across the hospital.

I hope this provides further information to you. If you have anything further you would like to add or have any suggestions of your own please let me know.

Many thanks

Barry