Bosses reveal hospitals recruiting more nurses after report mistakenly shows cut
Health bosses have confirmed more nurses are being recruited for county hospitals – after a board paper mistakenly showed the numbers were being cut by 500.
Shrewsbury & Telford Hospital NHS Trust (SaTH) will take on an extra 46 full time nurse positions under the plans, which will mean an overall nursing workforce of 2,132 at the trust's Royal Shrewsbury and Princess Royal hospitals.
The issue was clarified at a meeting of the Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin Integrated Care System, yesterday.
It came after concern from some at detail contained in the papers for the meeting, which listed the number of nurses as reducing from 2,712, to 2,132.
It emerged that the information contained in the papers was a mistake, and the papers were republished with the correct figures, and the matter was discussed at the meeting.
Under the plans the number of nurses at the trust is scheduled to rise from 2,086 at the end of March this year, to 2,132, the same time next year.
Officials say that as well as the overall numbers going up, 147 more nurses will be fully employed by the trust – which cuts down on the reliance and cost of bank and agency staff.
Gareth Robinson, Director of Delivery and Transformation for NHS Shropshire, Telford and Wrekin, said that the initial report contained incorrect information and was withdrawn and re-published.
He said: “We are committed to increasing nursing levels in our acute hospitals and in the community. We recognise that increasing nursing levels is an important step to improving and sustaining high standards of patient care and experience.
“At the end of March this year, there were 2,086 whole time equivalent nurses working at The Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust.
"By the same point next year, our plans will see that number increase to 2,132.
"We are focussed on increasing the number of nurses substantively employed by the Trust by almost 150 over this period and reducing the reliance on bank and agency staff.
“These details are set out in our revised Operational Plan, which was presented at our ICS Board meeting yesterday afternoon.
"An earlier version of this report was released publicly which incorrectly indicated that we had plans to significantly reduce nursing numbers. This earlier draft has been withdrawn and replaced – we apologise for any concern this might have caused.”
