22.06.2016
Healthwatch Croydon supports recruitment of extra nurses
Last week Croydon Health Services NHS successfully recruited 13 new nurses to the emergency, coronary care and acute medical units in one recruitment day, with another 11 coming in for interviews in paediatrics and maternity services, as part of their ongoing ‘Could you be a Croydon nurse?’ campaign.
Healthwatch Croydon welcomes their significant success in this campaign. Comments from patients and carers suggest a clear need for more nurses at Croydon University Hospital. While acknowledging that the wards have very high Friends and Family Test satisfaction rates (in the 95% region), Healthwatch Croydon has received feedback to suggest that support is sometimes lacking, particularly on the older people’s wards, with nurses taking too long to respond to call buzzers and to see to patients’ basic needs, such as washing and dressing. Families and carers have also said that communication with staff can be difficult at times.
Gary Hickey, Acting Chair of Healthwatch Croydon said: “We do not know whether these patient experiences are because of staffing levels, training, leadership, or other reasons, but we do know that additional nurses should go some way to improving the quality of service for all. We support the commitment and focus of Croydon Health Services NHS Trust to find good nurses to support their care for patients. Furthermore, we look forward to providing the Trust with relevant patient and carer experience data to support further recruitment of staff in the future.”
You can view our reports on patient experience of nursing services by downloading file below.
See the coverage we received to this news item in the Croydon Guardian.
Downloads
Patient Experience of nursing at Croydon University Hospital 1 Jan 2015 to 31 May 2016
