Time to see nursing as an investment not a cost, says RCN Scotland

Nurses are key to solving many of the problems facing health and care services. Nursing delivers expert care that helps people live healthier lives in their communities and prevents costly hospital admissions.

When hospital care is needed, the evidence is clear: safe nurse staffing levels deliver better patient outcomes, shorter stays, and lower risk of readmission.

This isn’t just good for Scotland’s health - it’s good for public finances too.

It has been almost a year since the Scottish government’s Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce published its recommendations. Key stakeholders spent over two years listening to frontline staff and developing a comprehensive set of recommendations to improve retention, culture and staff wellbeing and attract new nurses.

Since then, little progress has been made to deliver the report’s recommendations.

We are calling for Ministers to commit to implementing the Taskforce recommendations by clearly identifying the investment needed to deliver them.

The Auditor General highlighted last week how Scotland’s hospitals continue to face severe capacity challenges, with high levels of delayed discharges impacting individuals and the system as a whole.

Meanwhile, we have continued to raise the alarm over the corridor care crisis, demanding action and mandatory reporting.

Delayed discharges and the provision of care in inappropriate places in Scotland’s hospitals will not be solved without increasing capacity in community and care home settings. Given the pressure hospitals are under, funding cannot simply be moved from hospitals to community services in the short term. For meaningful progress, capacity needs to be increased in the right places, and this will require additional funding.

Commenting Colin Poolman, RCN Scotland Director, said:

“Expanding community and social care, prioritising prevention, and helping people live well with long-term conditions - nursing is central to all of this. Yet too often, nursing is seen as a cost rather than the investment it truly is. Ahead of this pre-election budget, we are calling for Ministers to recognise the role of nursing in tackling these challenges and set out the investment needed to deliver the recommendations from the Nursing and Midwifery Taskforce.

“Implementation of the Taskforce’s recommendations has barely gotten underway and our calls for identified investment to deliver have so far gone unanswered. We cannot afford to lose momentum on this vital work and miss this opportunity to make real improvements and deliver the sustainable nursing workforce that Scotland so badly needs.

“Delivering nursing care in the community is key for tackling delayed discharges, bringing care closer to the individual and reducing the pressure on acute hospitals. We’re calling for significant investment in the essential role of the registered nurse in the community and action to address the funding and workforce challenges in primary and social care. Without it, the longstanding ambition to move care into the community – a key aspect of the Scottish government’s Service Renewal Framework – will not be realised.

“This is a moment for bold government action on health and care, built around a strong nursing workforce. Otherwise, the future is truly bleak.”