Consultant tells of Stafford Hospital A&E understaffing

The public inquiry into Stafford Hospital has been told of desperate understaffing within the A&E department that left patients at risk.

Dr Shaun Nakash, a consultant and clinical lead for acute medicine at the hospital gave evidence to the Francis Inquiry yesterday.

He said that the A&E department was left with just one emergency consultant to provide care to patients — with the department often going without consultant cover at night and over weekends.

Dr Nakash, who has worked full-time at the hospital since 2001, said there was also a shortage of junior and middle grade doctors as well as a lack of nurses. The consultant said he was aware in 2007 of patients not getting pain relief or medicines on time.

He told the inquiry that the problems in A&E were so bad that his department provided extra support to A&E — with Dr Nakash saying he had worked six months in A&E with only one or two days off.

Despite the problems Dr Nakash did not raise his concerns over understaffing with any organisations outside the hospital despite taking visitors from the NHS Foundation Trust regulator Monitor on a ward tour.

Dr Nakash said things changed in April 2008 when he was asked by former chief executive Martin Yeates to take over A&E when he was promised more staff and extra resources.

Despite claiming that consultants had been complaining for years, Dr Nakash said Mr Yeates seemed surprised to hear about his worries.

He said: "When I spoke to him and expressed my concerns, there was an element of surprise, and when he became aware he just bent over backwards to help provide the resources that were required. I'm not quite sure whether he was receiving the full picture of what was happening in the organisation, or aware of that. That's only my opinion."

He added: "I'd been unhappy with the staffing levels in the accident and emergency department, both medical and nursing, for some time and I had voiced my concerns for some time."

Describing the impact on his workload of helping provide care in A&E on top of his normal role, Dr Nakash said he spent "a huge number of hours" in A&E adding: "For the six months that I took over as clinical lead for emergency care, I think there wasn't a day I wasn't in the department.

"Maybe one or two days I wasn't there. So I didn't see much of the family." The hearing continues.