A senior nurse has spoken about the work he is doing to retain and motivate staff at Whipps Cross in the wake of the hospital being placed into special measures.

Grant Nockles, from Chingford, at Whipps Cross University Hospital, Leytonstone joined the hospital in 2004 before rising to become senior nurse in the Older People’s and Stroke Service.

In March, Whipps Cross was rated inadequate by the Care Quality Commission (CQC), with inspectors finding patients were put at risk by long delays and a culture of bullying and harassment of staff by management led to workers being reluctant to raise concerns.

The CQC said during the November inspection staff morale was found to be low, and staffing was not at a level to ensure the safety of patients.

Mr Noakes maintained safer staffing is the biggest priority across Whipps Cross hospital.

He said: “We have had a big recruitment drive in Spain and Croatia, so the main message is how do we retain them and support them.

"We have enough staff now to conduct hourly rounding in a meaningful way to make out of hours periods safe. Patients can be reviewed and we can concentrate on preventing falls and pressure ulcers.

"This makes my job so much easier, we get fewer complaints around communication, and delayed discharges.

“We have made great progress but now it is a battle to stop them from joining other trusts."

Despite having a full work-force at his disposal in his ward, Mr Noakes admits there are still challenges in keeping his staff morale up among his 400 strong team.

“The hardest part of my job is keeping my core team motivated, keeping them focussed and keeping them engaged with patients and family members”, he said.

“We have made it easier for senior staff and ward sisters to be free of patient care, so they can support and nurture staff whilst being available to assess patients.

“We encourage staff to speak up about any adult safeguarding concerns they may have. If it is a personal problem they can always come to me, my door is always open.

Despite a reported £93 million debt, Barts Health have around £300 million worth of services in Emergency Care and Acute Medicine so Mr Nockles says staff can get a wealth of experience of different aspects of care across its four other hospitals.

“Being a successful nurse is about being out there, being visible, talking to families every day to see what you can do to help", he said.

"You need to unblock blocks in the system but maintain a clinical care as a fundamental of everything you do.

“It comes from the heart, regardless of how short staffed you are or what challenges you are facing as a nurse it is innate to be compassionate and deliver your best to put patients first.

"It is not something you have to toy up, it comes naturally.

“To support nurses to do that we need to provide them with the right skill mix, staffing levels and enough development opportunities within medicine so they can be trained to move upwards.”

“We try to recruit people from the local community to get them in as health care assistants or in an administrative role and then support them to develop into nurses of the future.”