THE boss at Colchester General Hospital has ordered staff not to admit to patients if they are under-resourced.

Nick Hulme, chief executive of the hospital trust, said he wanted a "mandate" to staff to introduce the policy after it emerged patients felt they didn't see enough nurses on duty.

Speaking at a meeting of the trust's board of directors, he said: "No member of staff should ever tell a patient we are short-staffed.

"That's the message we are giving patients in terms of confidence, I am absolutely clear about that.

"I would be looking for the board to have support to have an absolute mandate to say staff should never discuss staff levels with patients."

The meeting heard a National Inpatient Survey conducted on patients following an overnight stay last July found Colchester had not improved on the previous year's feedback.

As well as a perception of fewer nurses on duty, it had worsened in areas including the length of time patients had to wait for a ward bed and that they were being bothered at night by noisy ward staff.

The choice and quality of food, knowing who the nurse in charge is and being involved with being sent home from hospital were also areas the trust fared badly on.

Catherine Morgan, director of nursing, told board members the results were "disappointing" in some of the key indicators but it was looking at how it could improve.

However, Jude Chin, trust deputy chairman, added: "It is helpful, I guess like all data, it is out of date already so I am hopeful if we were to repeat it today, of a much better result.

"The one area I was a bit concerned about were the number of responses where we were significantly below average around discharges.

"How do you feel we are addressing that? Are we keeping on top of it?"

Mrs Morgan said: "We are working to bring forward conversations around staff planning so they start when the patient comes in."

The hospital has also recruited a discharge co-ordinator for every ward.

Mrs Morgan said the trust was working with another to see how it could reduce staff nighttime noise but warned opinions on food were very subjective, as was the case with waiting for beds.

Low results in staff surveys

UNHAPPY staff could be a risk to hospital patients, it has been claimed.

A staff survey at Colchester General Hospital has revealed many key findings which put it among the worst 20 per cent of acute trusts.

The annual survey found dissatisfaction with career progression, quality of appraisals and openness in terms of reporting errors.

Other findings scoring low included satisfaction with levels of responsibility and involvement, good communication between senior management and staff and support from managers.

The trust’s overall recommendation score was below average when compared to trusts of a similar type.

Clare Edmondson, the trust’s director of workforce, said: “These are areas that are mainly relationship areas and we will work in the next 12 months to two years to improve.

“Through a series of divisional action plans, interventions, focus groups, we will draw a strong action plan to move forward.”

However, Diane Leacock, a non-executive trust director, said she felt the situation was “risky” when it concerned quality of patient care.

“These are staff looking after patients, this is something we need to address quickly,” she added.

The trust scored well when it came to staff reporting errors, near misses or incidents, percentage of staff experiencing discrimination at work and staff agreeing their role makes a difference to patients.

Eight-seven per cent said they had received appraisals in the last 12 months.

The staff survey was carried out by Quality Health and is required by NHS England for all NHS organisations in the country.