Community Hospitals: Essex
The question
To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps he is taking to ensure adequate staffing levels in community hospitals in Essex.
Answered by Karin Smyth
The Government recognises the vital role that community hospitals play in delivering care closer to home, including in Essex. Responsibility for ensuring adequate staffing levels rests with local National Health Service organisations, which are best placed to assess the needs of their local populations and deploy staff accordingly, supported by national guidance and regulated by the Care Quality Commission.
Guidance documents from the National Quality Board entitled Safe, sustainable and productive staffing, from 2016, and Developing Workforce Safeguards, from 2018, are designed to ensure a consistent, scientific, and evidence-based approach to staffing levels and to improve governance and board accountability relating to staffing decisions. Both of these guidance documents are available at the following two links:
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/nqb-guidance.pdf
https://www.england.nhs.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Developing-workforce-safeguards.pdf
Verbatim has judged this answer against the question that was actually asked — answered, partly answered, or evaded. Sign in to see the verdict →