Nurses’ leader warns ‘draconian’ cuts huge threat to NHS care
Published: 07 September 2012
Proposals to make draconian cuts to staff pay risk harming patient care, the leader of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), warned today (7 September).
As debate increases over the likely impact of moving away from national terms and condition agreements, the RCN published a briefing showing the likely effect of the moves towards regional pay in the South West of England, in the face of what the RCN called “an increasingly fragile health landscape.”
A group of twenty Trusts in the South West have formed a cartel in an attempt to move away from the national pay system and to cut pay by setting pay regionally instead. At the same time as the NHS in England has been tasked with saving £20billion, they have paid £200,000 in total to join the cartel.
The RCN warned today that the moves threaten the healthcare delivered to some of the UK’s most vulnerable patients. Its briefing shows the precarious nature of healthcare in the region and how Trusts have already begun slashing jobs and services to meet financial targets. The South West has:
• Some of the greatest health demands with the oldest population in England (19.78% over 65 compared to national average of 16.54)
• Below national average numbers of qualified nursing staff (5.7 to each 1000 population compared to 6.12)
• The highest drop in nursing staff across England since the Coalition came into power (decline of 3.54% compared to national average of 1.16%)
• A pressurized workforce with 11 out of 20 Trusts in the cartel in the worst 20 per cent for employees feeling satisfied with the quality of work and patient care they are able to deliver
• Planned to cut posts with Royal Devon and Exeter NHS Foundation Trust publishing plans to cut 250 WTE posts in 2011-12, Taunton and Somerset NHS Foundation Trust publishing plans to decrease its workforce by 504 WTE from 2010 to 2013, and Royal Cornwall Hospitals NHS Trust announcing that it aimed to reduce its workforce by 400 staff by March 2012
RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary, Dr Peter Carter, said:
“Our report today takes an in-depth look at what is happening to the NHS in the South West of England. The bare facts are this is an area in which the NHS is already struggling under the weight of increased demand from patients and fewer staff to service that demand. There is a demoralized workforce under huge pressure to help some of the UK’s most vulnerable patients. This is an increasingly fragile health landscape which requires long-term solutions looking at service redesign rather than simple cost-cutting.
“The Cartel in the South West alleges that cutting terms and conditions of staff would save jobs. We say that is simply not true and what would actually happen is a skills drain as staff move away. Any Trusts looking at such a draconian cost-cutting exercise should look again and think what this will mean to patient care.”
The RCN today released statements from its members working in the South West of England, sent in to its Frontline First website:
One said:
“The hospital has and continues to plan further closure of beds. This has resulted in reducing the establishment of nursing staff to the wards affected. The hospital frequently has no beds. Patients are being nursed in areas where their privacy and dignity is compromised.”
Another added:
“The reduction of nursing staff on wards [is] by changing shift patterns and natural wastage. This has resulted in nurses having more patients each shift to care for. Several members of staff have left recently, and their jobs are not being advertised. Shifts are also not being covered by the bank [agency], leaving the ward often short staffed. As a consequence workload has increased and job satisfaction decreased, which may be affecting patient care.”
In response to proposals for regional pay in the NHS the RCN has said this would:
• exacerbate inequalities and harm patient care
• be bureaucratic and expensive for local Trusts to implement
• lack economies of scale which would take money away from patient care
• result in a skills drain with staff moving away from lower paid areas
Dr Carter added:
“Patients will lose out under moves to regionalize pay and cut terms and conditions. This would only increase inequalities and costs to NHS Trusts. NHS organisations need to stop labouring under the illusion that regional pay is a panacea to their financial troubles. It is not. This would be a fool’s economy. It is the wrong solution to the challenges these Trusts are facing”
The RCN’s Frontline First campaign has so far highlighted over 61,000 jobs to be cut across the UK. The campaign is calling for better integration between primary and secondary care, safe staffing levels on wards and an end to short sighted measures to save money.
Dr Peter Carter will be writing to NHS Trusts involved in the Cartel setting out the RCN’s concerns.
Ends
Notes for Editors
1. 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
2. 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.