Snapshot of Stories

More than half of nurses believe their NHS ward or unit is dangerously understaffed, according to a survey.  The Nursing Times conducted an online poll of nearly 600 of its readers on issues such as staffing, patient safety and NHS culture.  The survey also found three-quarters had witnessed what they considered “poor” care over the past 12 months.  The government said it had increased staffing and hundreds of new nurses were still being taken on by the NHS.  The survey comes ahead of a public inquiry report into care failings at Mid Staffordshire Foundation Trust.  The study found 57% of those asked described their ward or unit as sometimes or always “dangerously understaffed”.  Of those who had witnessed poor care, nearly 30% said they had seen it happen regularly.  Some 85% of those who worked on general wards said the patient to nurse ratio was eight or more to one, and 44% said the ratio was 10 or more to one.   The amount of work they (nurses) are expected to do goes up all the time but staffing levels don’t rise.”  The Royal College of Nursing considers the acceptable ratio as being compromised by staff shortages.  Joyce Robins, co-director of Patient Concern, told BBC Radio 5 Live nurses felt they could not keep their patients safe because there were not enough staff.  “The amount of work they are expected to do goes up all the time but staffing levels don’t rise,” she said.  “You hear all these stories that nurses don’t care anymore but really it’s that nurses can’t care because they don’t have time because there aren’t enough of them.”  One respondent in the study told the Nursing Times: “Safety is always at the forefront of my mind but it is becoming increasingly difficult to ensure that all patients are kept safe whilst in my care due to numerous constraints and expectations of the service.”  Also speaking to Radio Five Live Jenni Middleton, editor of the Nursing Times, said morale was very low amongst nurses.  “If you’ve gone into that job to care and to look after people and to not be able to do that is heartbreaking and very very stressful because you feel you’re incapable of doing what you’ve been trained to do because you don’t have the resources to back you up.”

A Ukrainian-Russian rocket carrying a US-made telecommunications satellite has plunged into the Pacific Ocean shortly after launch.  The Zenit-3SL rocket, which was being operated from a floating pad south of the Hawaiian islands, failed 40 seconds after the lift-off at 06:56 GMT.  The Intelsat-27 satellite was due to be positioned over the Atlantic to provide services to the Americas and Europe.  Officials say no-one was hurt as a result of the incident.  Staff from the Sea Launch company, which organised the launch, direct all missions from a support vessel that sits at a safe distance of about 6.5km uprange of the platform.  The firm said it would establish a review board to determine what went wrong.  “We are very disappointed with the outcome of the launch and offer our sincere regrets to our customer, Intelsat, and their spacecraft provider, Boeing,” Kjell Karlsen, president of Sea Launch AG, said in a statement.  “The cause of the failure is unknown, but we are evaluating it and working closely with Intelsat, Boeing, Energia Logistics Ltd and our Zenit-3SL suppliers. We will do everything reasonably possible to recover from this unexpected and unfortunate event.”  Sea Launch had not long returned from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.  A spectacular rocket failure on its converted oil rig in 2007 forced the firm to restructure its finances as orders slowed and debts mounted.  It re-emerged in 2011 and had lofted four satellites successfully from the Odyssey platform before Friday’s loss.  The rig-cum-pad and its command ship are based at Long Beach, California.  For a mission, the pair move south to the equator at 154 degrees West Longitude.  The 2007 failure ultimately led to the company seeking Chapter 11 protection  An equatorial launch location gives a rocket a boost from the Earth’s rotation, meaning it can lift heavier payloads into orbit.  Sea Launch is owned now by a Russian-led consortium headed by Energia Overseas Ltd, and is headquartered in Bern, Switzerland.  The commercial market for launching large geostationary telecommunications satellites is intensively competitive.  It has been dominated for several years by the European Ariane rocket, operated by Arianespace, and the Russian Proton vehicle, which is sold by International Launch Services (although the latter has experienced a number of failures of its own recently).  Once the cause of Friday’s loss is identified and any necessary corrective action taken, Sea Launch will need to re-instil confidence in the market that its product is a good one.  The Ukrainian-Russian Zenit-3SL vehicle has a generally good reliability record.  A modified version, the Zenit-3SLB, is operated from land, flying out of the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan. The most recent of these launches was at the end of 2011.  Launch contracts from the Luxembourg-based Intelsat company had been integral to Sea Launch’s return to business after bankruptcy protection.  Intelsat-27, which weighed some 6.2 tonnes at launch, was to have provided direct-to-home TV services and mobile broadband connections.

Songs Played

Bon Jovi – Because We Can
One Direction – Kiss You
Zoe – Sunshine on a Rainy Day
Art Brut – Nag Nag Nag Nag
Cheryl – Under The Sun
Donna Summer – I Feel Love
Buzzcocks – Everybody’s Happy Nowadays
Celine Dion – Je Sais Pas
Adele – Rolling In The Deep
Bran Van 3000 – Drinking In LA
Biffy Clyro – Black Chandelier
Lily Allen – Shame For You
Roxy Music – Love Is The Drug
ABBA – The Winner Takes It All
Mark Ronson feat Amy Winehouse – Valerie
Haim – Don’t Save Me
Bob Sinclar feat Gary ‘Nesta’ Pine – Love Generation
Sophie Ellis-Bextor – Catch You
Blink 182 – All The Small Things

80s Hour

A-Ha – Take On Me
Kraftwerk – The Model
Falco – Rock Me Amadeus
Eurythmics – Sweet Dreams (Are Made of This)
Simple Minds – Don’t You (Forget About Me)
Blondie – Call Me
Status Quo – In The Army Now
Pet Shop Boys – Always On My Mind
Hall and Oates – Out of Touch
Duran Duran – A View To A Kill