Doctors warn of ICUs being routinely understaffed

Doctors have warned that NHS intensive care units are so routinely understaffed patients are at risk of poor care.

Four out of five intensive care consultants believe shortages of doctors and nurses has left their unit too ‘stretched’ to provide the best possible treatment to people receiving life or death care need.

The demands that the coronavirus pandemic has placed on ICU staff means that one in seven of the NHS’s 2,500 intensive care consultants is thinking of quitting or switching to another role amid widespread stress and burnout among medics who have borne the brunt of the pandemic.

The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine claimed that the findings of the UK_wide survey showed that lack of staff in ICU is worryingly common. Dr Alison Pittard, the dean of the faculty, which represents intensive care staff, said that units inability in the face of understaffing to maintain the 1:1 nurse/patient staffing ratios deemed necessary for safe patient care was a concern.

She said: “Sixty per cent of units have nursing vacancies and 40 per cent of units are forced to close beds on a weekly basis due to staff shortages. So it is a widespread problem. There is evidence that suggests links between nursing resources and patient outcomes and adverse events. Any dilution of critical care expertise may therefore have a negative impact on patient outcomes and this undoubtedly results in stress amongst staff.”

At the height of the pandemic in April ICUs across the UK were caring for almost 4,000 patients. The second wave of the virus has left 16,145 people in hospital, of whom 1,422 are in ICU. Doctors say that is a lower proportion than in the first wave because fewer people are now put on mechanical ventilation because other forms of treatment have been found to be more effective.

The Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine survey also found that while 45 per cent of ICU consultants said their units had permanently expanded their capacity after dealing with the first wave of coronavirus in the Spring, only 18 per cent said that the extra beds created were adequately staffed.