Hospitals with just one doctor for 30 patients at nights: Institutions with fewest consultants have highest death rates

Patients are being put in danger because of a desperate shortage of senior doctors, a report warns today.
It reveals that the hospitals with the highest death rates are located in areas of the country with the fewest consultants.
Concerns have previously been raised that there are too few consultants working at nights and weekends with critically ill patients left in the hands of junior doctors.

High risk: Medway Hospital in Kent, one of the 12 NHS trusts with the highest death rates in the UK, has one senior consultant per 8,000 patients

Now doctors have admitted their own care is ‘unsafe’ because in some cases, a single doctor is being forced to look after 30 seriously ill patients at a time.
The state of hospital care has been under scrutiny since a report last month into the scandal at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust, where up to 1,200 patients died needlessly, warned that it could be happening elsewhere. There has been growing concern that patients are dying needlessly in other hospitals due to neglect and poor treatment.

The Royal College of Physicians today warns that doctors may not realise patients are becoming critically ill because they don’t get round to checking up on them.
One unnamed doctor told the college: ‘I had 30 patients to review. It was a ridiculous number. I was unsafe… I can put my hands up.
‘I think that’s because of the work. I think medicine is unsafe at the moment.’

Tragic scandal: A tribute wall made by family members and loved ones in memory of some of the 1,200 patients who may have died needlessly at Stafford Hospital

Care scrutiny: The scandal at the Mid Staffordshire NHS trust has led to inquiries into further trusts in the UK

In its report, the college says the 12 NHS trusts with the highest death rates are all in areas with the lowest numbers of consultants.
They include Medway in Kent, University Hospitals Birmingham and Walsall Hospitals, which each have an average of one consultant for 8,000 people.
But those trusts with the lowest rates – such as Chelsea and Westminster Hospital and Imperial College Healthcare, both in London – have one consultant for 5,000 people.

Under fire: NHS chief Sir David Nicholson will be questioned by MPs tomorrow

The report warns that the numbers of senior doctors – consultants and registrars – has not kept pace with the surge in patients coming to hospital, many of whom are elderly.
It also points out that there are more women doctors on wards who will only work part-time when they start a family.
Over the last six years the proportion of consultants working part-time has increased from 12 per cent to 18 per cent.
The report says this is due to the increase in women doctors – a third work part-time compared with 6 per cent of men.
Dr Andrew Goddard, a consultant at the Royal Derby Hospital and director of the college’s medical workforce unit, said: ‘Having 30 patients to review in one night is a huge workload. You’re having to make decisions about very sick people. You wouldn’t want to be number 29 on that list.
‘The danger is that if you are low down on that list of jobs and you then become unwell quickly, that isn’t picked up.
‘Patient safety is potentially at risk. There’s a clear association between hospital mortality and the number of senior doctors that are around.’
Since the report into the Mid Staffordshire scandal, the head of the NHS Sir David Nicholson has faced continued calls to resign. Tomorrow he will come under further pressure when he is grilled by MPs.

DAILYMAIL