A SOUTHAMPTON hospital has defended its staffing levels after a national survey of wards revealed it allegedly operates with dangerously low numbers of nurses.

An investigation has shown that Princess Anne Hospital had only 90% of the planned number of nurses at night for the last two years.

The analysis of official data by the Health Service Journal reveals a nationwide problem with hospitals using healthcare workers as “stand-ins”.

But last night Gail Byrne, director of nursing at University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which runs Princess Anne, said the statistics did not tell the full picture.

She said: “As we plan for a higher level of nurse staffing on all of our wards than the minimum safety requirement, our fill rate can be lower than our planned numbers – particularly compared to trusts which plan for lower levels and meet them.

“As is the case throughout the NHS, we do not employ as many nurses as we would like, but we now employ 210 more registered nurses than we did two years ago and are working hard to improve both our recruitment and retention through a variety of innovative projects.

“Our staffing levels are monitored via daily reviews which include risk assessments of each department to ensure that any gaps are filled to maintain safe staffing levels and we are among the top third of trusts for the number of care hours provided per patient every day.”

The research shows almost every acute hospital in England (96%) is failing to meet its own standard on how many nurses it should have on wards.

The problem appears to have got worse since the Government introduced a cap on how much hospitals are allowed to spend on agency staff.

A spokesman for the UHS trust added there was never a suggestion of dangerous staffing levels at UHS. “The trust absolutely does not consider its nurse levels dangerous, quite the opposite. The trust meets the minimum safe staffing level but plans for more.

“Different trusts plan differently. Some plan for lower numbers and meet them. We plan higher but our fill rate may be lower, though we meet the minimum number required at all times and this is monitored daily.

“We would not use 'stand-ins' to replace nurses. Trained healthcare support workers are a valuable part of the clinical team and often progress into registered nurse positions but would never be used to replace the role of registered nurses.”

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt ordered NHS trusts to publish monthly data on staffing as part of the Government response to the mid-Staffordshire scandal.

Prof Peter Griffiths, from Southampton University, who was a member of the NHS Improvement safe staffing committee for acute wards, said the use of healthcare assistants to fill gaps in the long-term could mean trusts “delude’’ themselves that they are maintaining safety.

Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: “These new figures show that almost every hospital in England is now short of nursing staff.

"Tired, overworked nurses cannot be expected to continue providing the quality of care which patients need.

“Theresa May doesn’t seem to understand just how deep a problem she is creating in the health service. Her policy of under-investment in the NHS is now a clear threat to frontline services."