Hellesdon Hospital, the headquarters of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust. Photo: Bill Smith Archant © 2012 Directors of Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, which is in special measures, meet in public today where safe staffing will be discussed. Figures show the trust’s fill-rate of nurses employed by NSFT is fluctuating between 80pc-90pc, meaning managers have to use extra funds to bring in temporary staff or upskill care support workers. By comparison the trust’s fill-rate last summer was between 87pc-95pc. It comes as the Royal College of Nursing warned the NHS is facing an “endless winter” of pressures. The trust currently employs 1,186 nurses - a rise of 88 from last October, when there were 1,098 nurses at the trust. A spokesman for the trust said it automatically took on newly-qualified nurses from University of East Anglia and University Campus Suffolk. “As well as recruiting new members of staff we are looking at ways of retaining and developing our existing staff giving them many more opportunities to extend their qualifications, skills and careers within mental health,” the spokesman added. “We conduct locality-focused recruitment campaigns and recruitment fairs. “This includes going to Lincoln University on June 28 for second year students, and we will also be attending a recruitment fair at The Forum in Norwich on July 27.” But RCN’s eastern region director Karen Webb said mental health trusts had to demonstrate commitment to safe staffing levels to attract and keep nurses. She also said people should be concerned about the plans to remove bursaries for student nurses, claiming the idea is a “dangerous gamble”. The government wants to scrap the bursaries because it believes it will lead to more nurses being trained. The mental health trust’s board of directors meet from 9.30am today in Endeavour House, Russel Road, Ipswich. Have you got a mental health story? Email nicholas.carding@archant.co.uk If you value what this gives you, please consider supporting our work. Click the link in the yellow box below for details.
Managers of mental health wards in Norfolk and Suffolk are being forced to spend more on temporary staff as the fill rate of permanently employed nurses has fallen, fluctuating between 80%-90% compared to 87%-95% last year. A public meeting of directors at the Norfolk and Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, which is in special measures, is due to discuss safe staffing. A spokesman said the trust was looking at ways to retain and develop existing staff, as well as sourcing new staff from recruitment fairs at local education institutions.