Specialist nurses at an NHS hospital have been told they may be taken off clinical shifts to help clean wards, it has emerged.
Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust has said it asked nursing staff to help clean wards as the hospital faced the “most challenging circumstances” it has ever faced.
Clinical specialist nurses, who are advanced nurses and can usually have hundreds of patients under their care, were among those asked to spend entire shifts helping other wards “cleaning”, “tidying” and “decluttering”.
The news has prompted criticism from unions, however, multiple nurses have reported that the requests happen “often” during winter.
Alison Leary professor of healthcare and workforce at South Bank University warned that asking specialist nurses to drop their work was “very risky”.
She said: “This problem keeps cropping up-as soon as there is pressure on wards they are expected to abandon their patients. It usually happens in winter and so it’s concerning that it has now started to happen in summer.
“This also shows very little respect for nursing generally and will not help retention. Trusts need to plan workforces accordingly and should ensure they have the right amount of cleaning, administrative and housekeeping staff-all staff groups which contribute to patient safety and care quality."
In July, specialist nurse teams at Luton and Dunstable Hospital, now run by Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, were asked if their teams could release staff for a whole shift or for a few hours for tasks which involved tidying, cleaning or decluttering the ward area.
The trust told The Independent the request was not driven by a shortage in cleaning staff but did not provide a reason for the move. It said no nurses so far had been taken off shift.
It said in a statement: “As an organisation, we do appreciate and value the important contribution that our dedicated nursing workforce (including our Clinical Nursing Specialists Team) makes in delivering quality patient care.
“We are proud of the way all our teams support each other during challenging periods. As a result of the pressures we are currently experiencing, a discussion took place with senior medical, nursing and management leads to consider how we might ensure our ward teams could be given additional help during some of the most challenging circumstances we have ever faced.”
The trust has said the actions have not been necessary so far and “would only ever be considered where every option had been exhausted and following a wider conversation with those affected”.
Teresa Budrey, Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Eastern Regional Director, said: “Every nurse is aware of the importance of cleanliness and infection prevention and control. It is always a priority, and no nurse would walk away from doing a task that needed to be done in order to protect their patients from the risk of infection.
“However, we do need to question whether spending time cleaning is the best use of time for someone in a highly-skilled nursing role whose skills would be better used elsewhere. We are in the midst of a nursing workforce crisis which is already putting patient safety at risk, without those nursing staff at work having to spend their time doing other roles.
“Rather than using specialist nurses’ time on cleaning roles, employers would be better advised to employ more custodial staff, who are a key part of the health care team, so nurses can focus on caring for patients.”
The news comes as the NHS faces the threat of nurses striking this year after the government did not meet requests for an above-inflation pay rise.
In June The Independent revealed leaked modelling shows the government was set to miss its flagship target to recruit 50,000 nurses driven mainly by problems in retaining staff.
