This is a campaign, initiated by doctors, to implore our government to commit to some basic medical staffing safeguards.
At present, there is no nationwide system in place to define what numbers of patients it is safe for a junior doctor to be responsible for, on their wards, or during on call shifts. This leaves a grave danger that understaffed hospital trusts can, and many do, leave less experienced junior doctors with many more patients than they are safely able to care for.
Please sign the petition if you are an NHS doctor, and agree that NHS England needs to ask every hospital to identify safe minimum junior doctor staffing levels in their clinical environments. The campaign is designed to act as a voice for medical professionals, to collectively express our concern about patient safety. Please sign with your full name, grade, workplace and GMC number.
Junior doctors believe that they do not have whistle-blowing protection. Therefore, if they raise a concern about medical staffing levels, they fear they might lose their hard-fought-for careers and livelihoods. There is also a culture of fear and intimidation within the NHS which keeps many doctors silent about staffing concerns.
A recent survey of over 950 junior doctors revealed some worrying statistics about the threat that junior doctor staffing in the NHS poses to patients. This revealed, amongst other findings (see blog post 'junior doctor survey' at www.safermedicalstaffing.wordpress.com ) that:
- 94% had worked on a ward where they felt the staffing levels of junior doctors posed a threat to patient safety.
To emphasise the seriousness of this issue... I am a hospital manager. I take just one ward. I do not employ enough junior doctors to manage the patient load. They struggle daily to see their patients, prescribe their medicines, discover new illnesses, react to emergencies. One or two patients may suffer, one or two may die. This may continue over many months or even years. The result could be hundreds of unnecessary deaths. Now consider it was your mother or father, son or daughter, on that ward. With not enough doctors. Who died...
This is not good enough, and as doctors we will not accept this.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
March 10, 2016
March 10, 2016
I have been reading the messages you are leaving alongside your signatures and the stories of burnout and exhaustion are heart-wrenching. It is clear that the culture of silence we are forced into is dangerous for patients and unsustainable for us. We are currently working on a formal briefing to present these findings to the health committee to ensure they cannot keep ignoring the reality on the wards.
Reached 100 supporters
March 10, 2016
March 7, 2016
I see the fatigue in my colleagues every morning and know how many of us are pushed past the point of safety. We are gaining momentum toward our goal but we must push harder today to force those in power to finally acknowledge this crisis.
174 Comments
I hear and read more and more stories about doctors carrying two or three bleeps on call. This is clearly unsafe and shows an urgent need for safe staffing systems
Very important petition. In some trusts the same number if junior doctors look after three times the number of patients as in other better staffed trusts. The doctor patient ratio should be part of the new contract.
I regularly had 3 figures of patients to look after at night whilst other specialties had far fewer it was unfair and unsafe with it being normal for me to drink so little that I wouldn't pee for 14 hours, clearly an unhealthy situation to be in!
Jeremy Hunt wants airline level safety. Most hospital wards wards would "be grounded" due to insufficient staff
RCP census shows 25% consultants report rota gaps in their junior staffing levels. Reflected in difficulties finding enough consultants already.
Patients need all Trusts to have safe staffing levels
39 Nevil Road Bristol BS7 9EG
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This is a campaign, initiated by doctors, to implore our government to commit to some basic medical staffing safeguards.
At present, there is no nationwide system in place to define what numbers of patients it is safe for a junior doctor to be responsible for, on their wards, or during on call shifts. This leaves a grave danger that understaffed hospital trusts can, and many do, leave less experienced junior doctors with many more patients than they are safely able to care for.
Please sign the petition if you are an NHS doctor, and agree that NHS England needs to ask every hospital to identify safe minimum junior doctor staffing levels in their clinical environments. The campaign is designed to act as a voice for medical professionals, to collectively express our concern about patient safety. Please sign with your full name, grade, workplace and GMC number.
Junior doctors believe that they do not have whistle-blowing protection. Therefore, if they raise a concern about medical staffing levels, they fear they might lose their hard-fought-for careers and livelihoods. There is also a culture of fear and intimidation within the NHS which keeps many doctors silent about staffing concerns.
A recent survey of over 950 junior doctors revealed some worrying statistics about the threat that junior doctor staffing in the NHS poses to patients. This revealed, amongst other findings (see blog post 'junior doctor survey' at www.safermedicalstaffing.wordpress.com ) that:
- 94% had worked on a ward where they felt the staffing levels of junior doctors posed a threat to patient safety.
To emphasise the seriousness of this issue... I am a hospital manager. I take just one ward. I do not employ enough junior doctors to manage the patient load. They struggle daily to see their patients, prescribe their medicines, discover new illnesses, react to emergencies. One or two patients may suffer, one or two may die. This may continue over many months or even years. The result could be hundreds of unnecessary deaths. Now consider it was your mother or father, son or daughter, on that ward. With not enough doctors. Who died...
This is not good enough, and as doctors we will not accept this.
Updates
Reached 250 supporters
March 10, 2016
March 10, 2016
I have been reading the messages you are leaving alongside your signatures and the stories of burnout and exhaustion are heart-wrenching. It is clear that the culture of silence we are forced into is dangerous for patients and unsustainable for us. We are currently working on a formal briefing to present these findings to the health committee to ensure they cannot keep ignoring the reality on the wards.
Reached 100 supporters
March 10, 2016
March 7, 2016
I see the fatigue in my colleagues every morning and know how many of us are pushed past the point of safety. We are gaining momentum toward our goal but we must push harder today to force those in power to finally acknowledge this crisis.
174 Comments
Trusts should have to follow NICE safe staffing for nurses and should be the same for doctors - on-call numbers especially
I hear and read more and more stories about doctors carrying two or three bleeps on call. This is clearly unsafe and shows an urgent need for safe staffing systems
Very important petition. In some trusts the same number if junior doctors look after three times the number of patients as in other better staffed trusts. The doctor patient ratio should be part of the new contract.
I regularly had 3 figures of patients to look after at night whilst other specialties had far fewer it was unfair and unsafe with it being normal for me to drink so little that I wouldn't pee for 14 hours, clearly an unhealthy situation to be in!
Jeremy Hunt wants airline level safety. Most hospital wards wards would "be grounded" due to insufficient staff
RCP census shows 25% consultants report rota gaps in their junior staffing levels. Reflected in difficulties finding enough consultants already.
Patients need all Trusts to have safe staffing levels
39 Nevil Road Bristol BS7 9EG
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Trusts should have to follow NICE safe staffing for nurses and should be the same for doctors - on-call numbers especially