NHS investment needs sustaining to tackle ills of NHS says RCN
Published: 24 August 2007
Commenting on the release of the Healthcare Commission (HCC) NHS Staff Survey, Dr Peter Carter, General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said:
“Nurses are under enormous strain, doing more work with fewer staff, so it comes as no surprise that so many of them said they would be unhappy with their care if they were patients in their own hospital. They have also been given a pay award which in real terms is a pay cut, and morale is at rock bottom. For the sake of NHS staff, and the patients they care for, investment in the NHS has got to be sustained to right the wrongs that this survey has thrown into sharp relief.
“I am deeply worried that the level of physical assaults and abuse that nurses and other healthcare workers are facing is not reducing and remains shockingly high. Our own figures show that forty per-cent of nurses have been attacked or abused at work.(1) This is a real and pressing issue, and one that has to be tackled. I welcome the HCC's call to Trusts to increase their efforts to solve this problem.
“It is also disturbing that so many staff do not have access to appropriate hand washing facilities. One hundred per cent of staff should have this. We know from our own research that the number of nurses with access to showering and laundering services at work is worryingly low. (2) If we are to make any headway against MRSA and other infections these failings have got to be addressed.”
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Notes to Editors
For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Media Office on 0207 647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit http://www.rcn.org.uk/news/mediacentre.php
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is the voice of nursing across the UK and is the largest professional union of nursing staff in the world. The RCN promotes the interest of nurses and patients on a wide range of issues and helps shape healthcare policy by working closely with the UK Government and other national and international institutions, trade unions, professional bodies and voluntary organisations.
(1) RCN at Breaking Point Survey, February 2006. Four in ten nurses reported they have been harassed or assaulted by patients or their relatives in the last 12 months (an increase of 6% from 2000). This figure rises to 79% of nurses working in accident and emergency. More than a quarter (27%) of the survey's respondents said they had been physically attacked at work; almost half of these said they had been assaulted in the previous year.
(2) RCN at Breaking Point Survey, February 2006. The number of nurses with access to changing facilities had dropped from 61% in 2000 to 50% in 2005. Only 39% of nurses had access to showering facilities at work. Just 35% of hospital based NHS nurses said their employer provided a uniform laundering service, dropping to 30% in independent hospitals.
The full RCN 'At Breaking Point' Survey can be viewed at http://www.rcn.org.uk/publications/pdf/at_breaking_point_2005.pdf