25 April 2025
Responding to the Health Services Safety Investigation Body (HSSIB) investigation report on the impact of staff fatigue on patient safety published this week (24 April 2025) President Elect of the Royal College of Emergency Medicine Dr Ian Higginson said: “Patient safety is paramount and the impact that staff wellbeing and their physical condition can have on that is clearly evidenced by this report.
“We are pleased to see that staff fatigue – and its consequences – are being recognised. It is a shame that it takes reports like this to highlight the glaringly obvious. Other sectors such as the airline industry and policing are streets ahead when it comes to understanding the risks associated with this issue. It is time that health service leaders addressed it in a similar way.
“We know the ED is a high pressure and high-risk environment – those who staff it need to be well-rested to stay healthy to ensure patients receive the best and safest care possible.
“Our members and their colleagues do extraordinary work, but we must remember they are ordinary people who suffer stress, moral injury, burnout like everyone else. Fatigue is not only the enemy of good patient care, it is the enemy of strong mental health.
“NHS leaders must take this issue seriously and do all they can to improve wellbeing in their staff, including fatigue. To do otherwise is to fail in their basic duty to care for staff, so they can care for patients.”
