New Survey Shows Inadequate Numbers Of Staff In Stroke Services

Main Category: Stroke
Article Date: 03 Apr 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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The first survey of staffing levels in stroke units in England estimates that more than 2,000 whole time equivalent (WTE) extra posts are needed to provide the best care to patients. The survey asked the lead clinician in 140 stroke units in England to collect information about patient numbers, staff numbers and staff/patient contact time to build up a picture of care.

A large amount of patients on English stroke units are highly dependent on staff for daily living activities. Despite this, the survey found that patients are receiving low levels of nursing and therapy time, with wide variation in provision:

75% of patients get less than 4 hours and 11 minutes of nursing input every 24 hours, and 25% get less than one and a half hours each day, equating to less than four minutes an hour on average

Contact time for therapy was even lower with 75% receiving less than an hour of therapy a day, and 25% receiving less than half an hour of therapy in every 24 hours

The lowest levels of therapy input are from speech and language therapists, with only one quarter of patients having any contact with a therapist, and median contact time being 30 minutes

Contact time with nurses appears to increase with the physical dependency level of the patient, but this does not account for the wide variation in performance

The survey estimates the numbers of extra staff that would be required to provide an optimal service - an additional 979 WTE nurses, 465 WTE physiotherapists, 435 WTE occupational therapists and 259 WTE speech language therapists.

Commenting, Dr Tony Rudd, Stroke Programme Director at the Royal College of Physicians and joint author of the study, said:

"This survey highlights how much needs to be done to achieve high quality care on stroke units in England. Work is progressing implementing the National Stroke Strategy. These data reinforce the message that the strategy is not going to be achieved only with good will and hard work. More resources will be required"

Notes

1. The article is called 'Staffing levels and patient dependence in English stroke units' and is published in this month's edition of Clinical Medicine journal.

Source
Royal College of Physicians

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