The Health Services Safety Investigations Board (HSSIB) has today published an investigation report: ‘Workforce and patient safety: temporary staff – integration into healthcare providers’.
HSSIB analysed serious incident reports provided by acute and mental health NHS trusts which detailed patient safety incidents where temporary staff had been involved. The report forms one of several workstreams looking at how working conditions in the NHS can be optimised to support patient safety.
Responding to the publication, Dr Ranee Thakar, RCOG President, said:
“It’s deeply worrying that this report has identified widespread incidence of temporary staff experiencing racism and other forms of discrimination from both patients and colleagues across NHS services. In many cases, they struggle to access support, and also face barriers to raising concerns or questions that may have a bearing on patient safety.
“This unacceptable behaviour is by no means confined to obstetrics and gynaecology, but we must call it out wherever it occurs, and support creating a culture where all staff feel empowered to challenge discrimination and speak up when they have concerns or questions relating to patient care. Confronting it is imperative for achieving high quality health outcomes for our patients and prioritising wellbeing and psychological safety across our workforce.
“Elsewhere in the report, HSSIB recognises the important role that credentialing systems such as the RCOG certificate of eligibility for short-term locums can play in supporting patient safety, as they enable staff to verify their competencies when moving between NHS organisations. We see this type of initiative as a valuable tool for supporting robust recruitment processes and offering locum staff a consistent and accredited way of demonstrating their skills and expertise from contract to contract. Embedding these systems alongside comprehensive induction plans helps to ensure that there is no compromise in patient safety and quality of care.”
- The full report can be found here
- Our new report asked UK members about their experiences of bias, racism and discrimination in the workplace, to help build understanding of how these can create barriers to fair working cultures and career progression. You can read a blog discussing the findings and setting out our next steps here