Posted on 2 December 2010

Health Secretary seeks resolution to staffing issues in acute admission wards

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The Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has said that he agrees with the Royal College of Physicians which is calling for greater staffing of consultants in acute admission wards.

He said that the college was right to say that patients deserved better care than was currently provided at night and at weekends. He added: “I have already asked Medical Education England to consider with the profession, the service and medical royal colleges, how best to secure better patient outcomes and the right level of supervision for trainees through greater consultant involvement in direct clinical care at night and at weekends.”

His comments comes as the RCP revealed, in its latest survey, that only 3% of hospitals have cover from a specialist consultant in acute medicine for 9 to 12 hours at weekends and adds to other surveys which suggest that more acutely ill patients die at weekends and that in many cases junior doctors are having to cover several wards.

The college says that patients have the right to expect seven day a week consultant care and that it is concerned at “mounting evidence of poor care delivered to patients in hospital". It says that there have been improvements in care for very ill patients in recent years because of more staffing and the introduction of acute admissions units but that its survey revealed that patients are still not being seen twice a day in ward rounds and that only a quarter of acute admission wards have enough beds.