NHS heading for crisis point as job losses mount - RCN

Published: 20 November 2011

The Royal College of Nursing today (20 November) warned that the NHS was heading for crisis point as it revealed the soaring number of post losses, with 56,058 NHS positions now being axed across the UK.

 

In England alone, 48,029 NHS posts are set to be cut or have been lost since the RCN began tracking post losses in April 2010. This is a huge rise of more than 50 per cent from the previous figure of 30,873 found by the RCN just seven months ago, and is the equivalent of closing some of the biggest hospitals Trusts in the country - such as Heart of England Foundation Trust - more than four times over. In the worst cases, some Trusts are cutting up to a quarter of their workforce and are shedding hundreds of posts each.

 

An RCN analysis of 41 Trusts in England revealed that clinical posts make up almost half (49 per cent) of the total workforce cuts with nursing posts (registered nurses and healthcare assistants) accounting for more than a third (34 percent) of the posts earmarked to be cut. On average, across the 41 Trusts, 8.3 percent of qualified nursing jobs will be lost.

 

The findings are further evidence that Trusts in England are making short-term cuts in order to meet the £20 billion “efficiency savings” target set by the NHS. Despite Government promises to protect the frontline, the RCN has found that clinical services and staffing levels are now being severely affected, with potentially disastrous consequences for patient care.

 

Detailed research by the RCN reveals that some NHS Trusts in England are planning to cut a significantly high percentage of their total workforce. Examples include:

 

•          Heatherwood and Wexham Park Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has lost 280 WTE staff in 2010-11 and plans to lose 533 more from 2011 to 2014 as part of its “transformation project”. This equates to a loss of 25.25 percent of its total 2010 workforce.

•          Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust plans to lose 1,916 WTE staff from 2011 to 2016. This is 22.87 percent of the total 2010 workforce.

•          Kingston Hospital NHS Trust plans to reduce staff numbers by 486 posts from 2011 to 2016. This is 19.16 percent of its total 2010 workforce.

 

Royal College of Nursing Chief Executive & General Secretary, Dr Peter Carter, said:

 

“These figures reveal the deeply worrying acceleration in NHS post losses in recent months. It is only eighteen months ago that we were concerned about losing around 5,000 NHS jobs. Now it is more than ten times that figure. Cutting staff numbers by up to a quarter and axing a third of nursing posts will undoubtedly have a deep and potentially dangerous impact on patient care.

 

“There is clear evidence that the quality of care and patient safety is improved when you have the right numbers and skills in place on wards. Staffing levels should be based on rigorous clinical evidence and should not be arbitrarily lowered in a short-sighted effort to save money. We are currently working with Peers to table amendments to the Health and Social Care Bill to ensure mandatory safe staffing levels.”

 

The RCN has uncovered a number of trends from its intelligence gathering systems, including downbanding (when registered nurses are replaced with nurses of a lower band or unregistered nursing assistants). Some recent examples of downbanding include:

 

•          University Hospital of North Staffordshire NHS Trust is proposing to reorganise its nursing workforce due to a reduction in bed numbers caused by the move to a new hospital, resulting in the loss of 66.47 WTE registered nursing posts in total. As part of this restructure, more than 200 band 6 posts will be replaced by band 5 posts.

•          Camden and Islington NHS Foundation Trust is proposing to restructure its community mental health services. This will result in an overall loss of 69 WTE posts, 63.07 of which are qualified nurses, occupational therapists, psychologists and social workers. The proposals also include a large dilution of skill mix, with the loss of all 88.48 WTE band 7 nursing posts but a slight increase in band 6 clinical roles.

 

The RCN has also found copious examples of cuts to preventative services, to the community sector, and to mental health services. In addition, many NHS organisations are now attempting to move away from nationally agreed pay and conditions in attempts to meet their savings targets.

 

Examples of these cuts include:

•          Birmingham and Solihull NHS Cluster plans to decommission Birmingham Own Health, a health care service for people with long term conditions in Birmingham which is run by NHS Direct. The service provides one-to-one advice and support to people in several languages to help manage their condition.

•          Southern Health NHS Foundation Trust’s proposed redesign of inpatient adult mental health services in Hampshire would mean the closure of two hospitals – the Meadows and Woodhaven. This would result in a loss of 48 beds.

West London Mental Health Trust has closed the Families Service at the Cassel Hospital due to lack of funding. This was an intensive assessment and treatment centre for families with complex mental health problems, where children are at risk of harm. The trust is proposing to reconfigure the hospital’s other services following the closure. This would result in a loss of 19.65 WTE posts, including 3.85 WTE registered nurses.
 

Dr Carter added:

 

“We have always accepted that savings need to be made in the NHS, but cutting frontline staff and services that vulnerable patients rely on is just not the way to do it. When the “Nicholson Challenge” of saving £20 billion in England by 2014 was announced, we were told that these savings would be reinvested back into frontline services.  Yet, more than year and half into the process, there is still no evidence that this is happening. It is absolutely vital that we now see concrete evidence of where this money is going.”

 

Ends

 

 

 

Notes for Editors

 

1.     Most NHS Trusts only provide top line figures for the posts they plan to lose, rather than a breakdown of nursing, clinical and administrative posts affected. However, for these 41 Trusts, the Frontline First campaign has uncovered sufficient detail to perform a statistical analysis.

2.     For further information, please contact the RCN Media Office on 020 7647 3633, press.office@rcn.org.uk or visit  http://www.rcn.org.uk/newsevents/media

3.     The 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