Healthcare assistants across the UK face are suffering from the NHS crisis of staffing levels.
The union’s report, Red Alert – Unsafe Staffing Levels Rising, looked at staffing levels across the UK 10 February this year. But further analysis has now zoomed in on the situation for healthcare assistants in particular.
As one respondent to the survey told us: “The one thing that is always absent [from the debate about staffing levels] … is the healthcare assistants, who are always over looked, and should be enforced in staffing levels.
“We always see a heavy work load demanded from healthcare assistants with a very high ratio – 1:20 sometimes – which at times seems impossible to do, and affects patients’ care very greatly.”
The key findings revealed that:
- half of all healthcare assistants were contracted to work 10 hours or more;
- on the day of the survey, one in five of all healthcare assistants worked more than their contracted hours, but only 11% of them would get paid for it;
- only half of healthcare assistants were able to take all their breaks during their shift;
- nearly 36% said there were elements of care that they could not provide because they didn’t have time;
- only 36% said they had enough time to spend with each patient – identical to the proportion of registered nursing staff;
- healthcare assistants were more likely than registered nursing staff to say they are not confident about raising a concern at work and nearly as likely as registered nursing staff to say that they had considered leaving their profession because staffing levels were so bad.
Nearly 90% of healthcare assistants back UNISON’s campaign for legally enforceable nurse-to-patient ratios – together with the need to ensure adequate healthcare assistants staffing alongside that.
While traditionally seen as being able to spend more time with patients than registered nursing staff, this survey shows that the pressures on services, and the lack of adequate staffing, mean that most Healthcare assistants now feel starved of the time they need to properly care for each patient.
UNISON is urging healthcare assistants and all those who care about the NHS to make sure that they use their vote in the general election on 7 May.
Find out more at our election pages
Download the full report, Red Alert – Unsafe Staffing Levels Rising [PDF]
