Salisbury NHS Trust scoops national award for staff to patient ratios
Data ensures patients are kept safe with enough staff on hand
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust has been recognised for its work to improve links between daily staffing needs to patient dependency at Salisbury District Hospital.
The trust was one of six winners at the RLDatix Awards 2024, picking up the innovative award for quality improvement.
It was earnt after an initiative seeing ward staff and senior nursing leaders trained to make more effective use of software that helps to match staffing levels in a way that mitigates risks to patient safety.
Salisbury NHS Foundation Trust Interim Chief Executive Lisa Thomas said:
“Deputy Nursing Officer Fiona Hyett and Safe Staffing Matron Clare Holbrooke-Jones have championed patient safety through workforce initiatives. They should take pride in their achievements.”
Fiona and Clare, representing the Trust at the Awards, said:
“We are delighted to win the award - it's great to see the work we’ve done acknowledged.”
Better decision-making from data provided by the ‘acuity and dependency scoring’ platform means staffing practices have been improved, reducing the need for expensive temporary staff.
As a result of this project, Salisbury reduced its spending on temporary staff from a high of over £1,765,000 per month in January 2023, to £844,100 per month by April 2024.