Doctors forced to sleep on hospital office floor

Night shift staff at Barnsley Hospital have been sleeping on an office floor for several months

Doctors are having to sleep on mattresses on a hospital floor after a room set aside for them to rest in was needed for office space.

The room was used by members of the obstetrics and gynaecology team at Barnsley Hospital on night shifts and had been due a refurbishment.

However, a rehabilitation unit had to be moved to a ward at the hospital and it needed the room.

A hospital spokesperson said the situation was not an "ideal solution", but that work was under way to restore a suitable rest room for staff.

The Acorn Rehabilitation Unit, which was previously located at Highstone Mews Care Home, in Worsbrough Common, was moved to ward 12 at the hospital in June as it was no longer fit for purpose.

However, the move meant that the break room that doctors had used had to be used for office space to accommodate the move.

Staff have taking to putting mattresses on an office floor to get some rest during a night shift, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

A report to the hospital’s board of directors stated the issue had "yet to be resolved".

It added that there was concern about the impact this could have on staff’s morale, as well as on retention and recruitment.

A Barnsley Hospital spokesperson said it had had to "open a ward at short notice".

"We are a relatively small hospital and so had to temporarily locate the rest spaces to prioritise patient care areas.

"The rest areas are not meant as overnight accommodation for sleeping in and not intended to be a long-term solution for doctors to use for rest during shifts.

"We recognise this is not an ideal solution, and the last board of directors’ meeting supported the works required to ensure our colleagues have access to improved facilities for rest purposes."

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