When it comes to your health, you expect the level of care that you receive during your hospital stay to be professional and up to code. This hasn’t been the case for some hospitals across Birmingham as reports have highlighted a toxic work culture that has resulted in a high number of medical negligence cases.
Paired with a lack of nurses, this has led to a concern about the quality of healthcare that patients experience. It has raised the question of how doctors can do their jobs when they are not treated with respect by employers and other staff.
Compensation claims
According to recent statistics from NHS Resolution, NHS Trusts in Birmingham have shelled out millions in med neg claims after 151 successful cases. The total costs of damages came to a whopping £46,820,715.
This also includes 39 successful claims against Birmingham Women’s and Children’s NHS Foundation Trust within the last year. Other trusts that have needed to pay out have been Sandwell and West Birmingham Hospitals and Birmingham Community Healthcare.
This is shocking from the largest hospital trust in England as they serve over three million people a year. If you have a claim against NHS Birmingham Trusts, contact no win no fees medical negligence lawyers to receive the compensation you deserve.
Toxic work culture
Toxic work culture costs the UK business sector millions across the board. The latest research has shown that toxic work culture directly impacts the bottom line of companies through loss of working hours, recruitment fees, and temporary staff cover.
Enquiries were commissioned by the Birmingham and Solihull Integrated Care Board and the local NHS after allegations that doctors were threatened for raising safety concerns. The trust denied these claims. However, the enquiry was concerned by the defensiveness of the leaders of the trust and an emerging concern protocol was triggered due to unprecedented concern over patient safety.
Lack of nurses
The NHS is currently facing the worst NHS shortfall in healthcare workers to date, and this is affecting patient care. Studies found that England is now short of 12,000 hospital doctors and more than 50,000 nurses and midwives. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been a treatment backlog, and extra staff is required to keep up with demand.
This shortage is largely due to disputes over salary and poor working conditions that leave healthcare workers like nurses feeling underappreciated and looking for different lines of work. There has even been a shocking trend of harassment and discrimination in the workplace faced by nurses.
Having the right number of appropriately qualified nursing staff is essential to protect and improve patient welfare.
