Annex A > Chapter 9 - The Split Service > Comments by parents/patients > Staffing levels
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Staffing levels
77 Christine Ellis, mother of Richard, commented on staffing levels in 1991 in her written evidence to the Inquiry:
`After his period in the ITU Richard was transferred back to the ward in the BRI that he had first been admitted to for a period of time. The staff in that ward suggested that he was better to be transferred back to the Children's Hospital because they did not have the ability to give the one to one attention and the particular attention to an infant that was required and accordingly Richard was transferred by ambulance back to the Children's Hospital ...' [78]
78 Deborah Gillard, mother of Christy, stated of her experience in 1989:
`The standard of care on the general ward had struck [us] as lower than it might be; babies were often left to cry for long periods of time, and the staff included many bank nurses, who did not seem as attentive as the regular staff.' [79]
79 Andrew Hall, father of Laurence, referring to 1994, stated:
`It did not appear that set teams were allocated to each individual patient and there was always a lot of new faces around; in particular, a lot of temporary agency staff working on the ITU.' [80]
80 Michelle Cummings, mother of Charlotte, told the Inquiry of her experience in 1987 in the following exchange:
`Q. And you say in your statement that there were no specially trained nurses around?
`A. I meant ITU nurses. There were no intensive care nurses.
`Q. Obviously there were no children's nurses?
`A. Yes, but I meant she was not having intensive care nurses looking after her, which, you know, I mean, the attention that these children get when they are in ITU. There was also the other issue over the risk of infection on a general surgical ward, so close, which again, could not be addressed because of the circumstances.' [81]
81 Belinda House, mother of Ryan, told the Inquiry of her experience in 1990: `... most of the nurses were more relaxed nursing the adults'. [82]
82 In oral evidence Linda Burton, mother of David, told the Inquiry of her experience of the ICU at the BRI in 1991:
`Staff never sat down, they were constantly on the move, testing and reading and administering drugs, very caring, very attentive.' [83]
83 Nursing and staffing levels in the ICU are dealt with later in Chapter 15 - Post-operative Care.
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Footnotes
[78] WIT 0023 0011 - 0012 Christine Ellis
[79] WIT 0161 0004 Deborah Gillard
[80] WIT 0172 0003 Andrew Hall