Safe staffing levels

At the Royal Devon & Exeter NHS Foundation Trust (RD&E), we take the safety of our patients and staff very seriously and have well-established procedures to ensure that are our wards and departments are appropriately staffed.

All hospitals are required to publish information about the number of nursing and midwifery staff working on each ward, together with the percentage of shifts meeting safe staffing guidelines.

This is part of the NHS response to the Francis report, an investigation into the failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust, which called for greater openness and transparency in the health service.

Every ward at the RD&E displays a safe staffing board which shows the planned and actual numbers of staff on shift each day.

These boards are displayed on each ward where they can be clearly seen by patients, visitors and staff. They show who is in charge of the shift that day and what actions are being taken when staffing levels fall below our planned levels. We believe that by displaying information in these way patients and visitors will have confidence in our care.

Information about staffing levels is also presented and discussed at the public meetings of our Board of Directors. Links to those papers are available below.

If you have you a question about nurse staffing levels at the RD&E, please email rde-tr.safestaffing@nhs.net.