RCN urges reality check on NHS cuts
Published: 12 May 2010
Targeting frontline NHS services in a bid to meet efficiency savings of up to £20 billion risks sending the health service back to the days of hospital trolleys in corridors and year long waits for operations, warns the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) today at its annual Congress. The RCN warned that cuts to services and staff are now becoming a reality across the health service as some trusts look to slash budgets.
The RCN has already begun to monitor the effects of the measures being taken across the NHS to help meet the efficiency savings and has identified key trends that are beginning to impact on the quality of care being delivered. Several snapshot surveys have shown that nurse staffing levels are being reduced, training budgets cut and specialist nurse posts put at risk.
Scores of trusts across the country are also beginning to lay out more detailed plans for reducing services and jobs. The RCN is already aware of more than 5,000 jobs which are earmarked for cuts.
Dr Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary said:
“We are in no doubt that politicians genuinely want to protect frontline services and the vital care they deliver to patients. However, there appears to be a gulf between rhetoric and reality when it comes to finding efficiencies in the NHS.
“Despite assurances that the NHS budget will be protected, the reality is that locally, trusts are making deep and dangerous cuts to staff numbers now, with further cuts planned for the future. We would urge whichever party forms the next Government to work with the RCN to devise ways of making the savings that we know are possible within the NHS, whilst protecting frontline care.”
Understaffing across the NHS, from acute hospitals to services in the community, remains the biggest challenge facing the NHS as it enters a new period of economic uncertainty. In a new survey of nurses in charge of hospital wards, almost all (92%) said that patient care was being compromised by short staffing at least several times a month, with nearly a third (30%) saying that it happened on most shifts.
The survey also showed that most hospital wards are already operating with an average of 13% fewer staff than they officially need. More than three quarters (76%) of respondents have had staff vacancies on their wards in the past year and nearly half (49%) had a recruitment freeze in place.
The impact of the drive for savings was also evident with 40% reporting a ban on using bank or agency nurses and more than a fifth (22%) saying that nursing posts on their wards had already been cut. The RCN warns that as well as reducing the quality of care that can be provided, short staffing also puts at risk some of the nursing ‘basics’ such as compassion and communication – the very things that patients value most.
A further study conducted in care homes in England showed that as in the acute sector, shortage of nurses was a major concern for two-fifths (43%) of respondents in nursing homes. A fifth (20%) of nurses working in care homes also said that the health needs of care home residents were not being met. The average staffing ratio in care homes who provide nursing care was one registered nurse to every 17 residents, with some nurses caring for up to 35 people each.
Dr. Peter Carter, RCN Chief Executive & General Secretary said:
“History shows us that whenever the NHS needs to make large efficiencies, trusts turn too quickly towards reducing staffing numbers as a way of slashing costs. It’s time for a reality check - there is no doubt that cutting staff numbers will have a disastrous effect on the quality of care provided.
“We understand that there are savings that the NHS could make and ways it could work differently to make funding go even further but protecting patient care simply has to remain our number one priority.
“Nurses know where the waste is in the NHS, they see it for themselves on a daily basis. Our nursing staff need to be empowered to innovate, to save and to find the efficiencies that protect patients and the public.”
In the next few weeks, the RCN will be launching its Frontline First campaign to monitor the true extent of the efficiency measures across the NHS. The campaign will enable frontline workers to report where local services are being cut and also to share their solutions for finding innovative ways to make services more cost-effective whilst at the same time protecting patient care.
Ends
Notes for editors
For further information, interviews or illustrations please contact the RCN Press Office on 020 7647 3633.
RCN Congress 2010 runs from Sunday 25 April – Thursday 29 April at the Bournemouth International Conference Centre. There will be a press conference to launch Congress at 3.30pm on Sunday 25 April. An ISDN line will be available for interviews
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.