Sleep pods used to help tired NHS staff take a break

Dozens of hospitals across the country are trialling the installation of sleep pods for doctors and nurses to have power naps during their shifts.

Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust was the first to try them, in June 2018, and has since spent £17,000 to put one pod each in the A&E unit, doctors’ mess and maternity department at New Cross hospital and another in Cannock Chase hospital.

The trust’s chair, Steve Field, said that because pressure on the NHS is so intense, ‘too many staff end up exhausted because they have long, busy, sometimes stressful shifts’. The former GP claimed that doctors provide better, safer care when they are fresh and alert, and that the Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust has found the pods to be very popular with staff and also very effective in helping them get more rest.

The pods are used the most between midnight and 4am and also between noon and 4pm. The average stay is 17 to 24 minutes, enough for someone to recharge their batteries, although trust research indicates that some have used one for as long as 79 minutes. Some staff spend time in a pod before they drive home after a nightshift.

In addition to Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, Walsall Healthcare Trust trialled two pods and a recliner chair last year, with ‘overwhelmingly positive’ feedback, while Hereford County Hospital has recently installed two pods which offer soothing music, lights and vibrations to aid the quest for a rest.

Dr Mike Farquhar, a consultant in sleep medicine at the Evelina children’s hospital in London, who has persuaded NHS chiefs to take staff slumber more seriously, said hospitals were finally taking practical action.

He said: “Air traffic controllers are only allowed to work for two hours and then they must take a 30-minute break, because if they were tired and made a mistake, bad things could happen. But in the NHS, where the pressure is often high and sustained, the problem is that the people delivering care will usually choose to prioritise everything else – especially patients – over themselves and sacrifice things like breaks and sleep.”