Legal News

A care home in Leeds was forced to close its nursing wing last month due to a shortage of staff, and last August, the Care Quality Commission (CQC) reported that a care home in Derbyshire was so short-staffed that residents resorted to caring for each other.

Skills for Care, the strategic body for workforce development in adult social care in England, published a report on the state of the adult social care sector and workforce in England in 2016. The report estimated that almost 340,000 social care employees leave their jobs each year.

An East Midlands district nurse Mary Black has said that she and her colleagues struggle to cope with short staffing, and that this directly impacts patient care. Black commented:

“It often feels like we’re not giving our patients a very good service, we cannot spend the time with them that they often need. Incidents and complaints will have risen.”

Contributing further to the problem is an apparent lack of interest in careers in care, and an ageing workforce. People under the age of 25 make up less than 10% of the adult social workforce, and one third of NHS nurses are due to retire in the next decade according to the Institute for Employment Studies. It is crucial that the NHS and social care sectors work to attract younger candidates.

Duncan Lewis Clinical Negligence Solicitors

The Duncan Lewis Clinical Negligence team has significant experience acting in a vast array of claims. Varying from accident and emergency failures to GP negligence claims, to misdiagnosed fractures to wrongful death matters claims. They also act for children and adults who have suffered profound and permanent brain, spinal or neurological injuries and associated disabilities as a consequence of failings in medical care in both NHS and private hospitals. If you have any queries relating to Clinical Negligence or think that you may have a claim, please do not hesitate to contact our team of expert solicitors on 03337720409.