HSJ’s roundup of Wednesday’s key stories

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Today’s must know: Hospitals fail to hit staffing targets despite recruitment drive

Today’s talking point: Another trust chief executive leaves the NHS

Today’s risk: NHS England will not stop hearing aid ‘rationing’ plan

Missing targets… again

Despite a huge recruitment drive, NHS acute trusts are failing to employ sufficient numbers of nurses on hospital wards, HSJ analysis revealed on Wednesday.  

Eighty-four per cent of trusts failed to meet their nurse staffing targets for both day and night in at least one hospital in April, which is an increase from the same time last year.

Nursing directors said this was down to increased staffing requirements driven by NICE staff safety guidance for acute wards, which has forced some trusts to plan to have more nurses on hospital wards.

Royal College of Nursing policy director Howard Catton said new immigration rules, which force non-EU nurses to leave the country if they earn less than £35,000, should be changed to prevent the situation getting worse.

HSJ has also broken the data down trust by trust, so you can see how your local hospital is performing against its staffing plans.

Power vacuum?

One eagle-eyed HSJ reader spotted that Tricia Hart is the third trust chief executive to announce their departure in the past week - and the fourth this month - lamenting that “the NHS can’t cope with this level of senior leader turnover”.

Professor Hart will be stepping from her position as chief executive at South Tees Hospitals Foundation Trust in January. She plans to retire after a 42 year career in the NHS.

Another expressed concern that “the more we set targets, monitor, regulate, review and are only able to use positive words, but preside over demographics and finances that don’t add up, the more we will ensure these roles are unsustainable”.

On the other side, one commenter doubted there was a “great collective haemorrhage of talent” going on.

Is there a solution to the growing number of empty CEO chairs? Well, HSJ’s Future of NHS Leadership inquiry earlier this year suggested that having fewer NHS organisations could prevent management talent being spread too thin.

A ‘damaging’ precedent

A hearing charity has disputed a decision by NHS England not to intervene in a clinical commissioning group’s attempt to “ration” access to hearing aids for the first time in NHS history. It warned that it could set a “damaging” precedent if neighbouring CCGs “follow suit”.

NHS England’s North Midlands area team gave the OK to the plans by North Staffordshire CCG, on the basis that the group followed “proper process” and made an evidence based decision. The measures are estimated to save around £200,000 a year and will affect 500 patients.

However, the charity Action on Hearing Loss claimed the CCG had breached its duties to make decisions after “a proper consideration of the evidence”.

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