An NHS Fife consultant threatened to close a packed intensive care unit on Saturday night amid a staffing crisis, it has been claimed.
Cowdenbeath MSP Alex Rowley claimed staff, inexperienced in working in the critical care unit, were brought in from other wards at Kirkcaldy’s Victoria Hospital last weekend.
He said the ICU was full but there was simply not enough of the required qualified staff to look after the patients there.
“I am told the management team thought it was acceptable on Saturday to use nurses from elsewhere in the hospital to staff the ICU.”
He added he had heard the nurses had no experience of working there.
“One ended up with a ventilated and dialysis patient and no skills to look after this patient. This nurse was in tears by the end of the day,” he added.
Calling on Health Secretary Shona Robison to investigate, he added: “These are the sickest people in Fife. Their care was left in the hands of untrained nurses.”
He said it was put to him management “thought this was acceptable and refused to bring in trained agency staff”.
But an ICU consultant apparently “gave his view of the situation in no uncertain terms and threatened to close the unit unless they had trained staff”. Agency nurses were then brought in.
“If this is true, and I believe it is true, then it is completely unacceptable,” he added. “This is not about blaming staff, it is about providing the staff with the skills and qualifications needed to care for people.
Mr Rowley fears this is part of a wider issue of staff recruitment in NHS Fife. He was “taken aback” to hear there are 53 consultants posts vacant a rise from the previous year.
“This was despite the fact that NHS Fife had told me they were doing better at recruiting for some posts,” he said.
Director of nursing Helen Paterson stressed NHS Fife is committed to giving patients the best standard of care, adding: “It is important to reassure the public that we are operating at staffing levels which are safe and appropriate across our services.”
There had been high demand for the critical care unit and staffing levels were reviewed shift by shift “to ensure the appropriate levels of nursing skills were available” in the unit.
Meanwhile, human resources director Rona King said NHS Fife, like other Scottish boards, experienced “challenges” in recruiting consultants.
She added: “It is, however, important to highlight that many of these vacancies are covered by other means and I can confirm we have appointed 20 consultants who will start in NHS Fife over the next few months.”
Health Secretary Shona Robison said: “Under this government the number of consultants at NHS Fife has increased substantially by 38%, a rise of 64 whole time equivalent posts.
“A further 20 consultants have been recruited and are due to start work over the next few months.
“While this increase is welcome, the board want to go further and the increase in vacancies is linked to efforts to increase capacity by recruiting even more staff.
“NHS Fife have acknowledged there were staffing pressures last weekend but they have stressed that safe staffing levels were maintained at all times.”