RCN warns over frontline NHS jobs

Community nursing services are being ‘overburdened’, claims the Royal College of Nursing Community nursing services are being ‘overburdened’, claims the Royal College of Nursing

More than 60,000 frontline jobs in the NHS, including those of nurses, are at risk of being axed because of spending cuts, with almost half already gone, according to “stark” figures in a new study.

The Royal College of Nursing said community nurses were among those facing cuts, which meant that government plans to move care from acute hospitals to community sites were a “facade”.

The RCN said 61,000 posts were at risk of being slashed across the health service, including nursing and other jobs, with 26,000 already lost in the two years to April. The loss of so many jobs showed the “weakness” of government pledges to protect the front line, said the RCN ahead of its annual conference in Harrogate this week.

Community services, covering district and mental health nurses and those who visit patients in their own homes, were being “overburdened”, said the RCN. Cuts and underinvestment risked a “revolving door” for patients, who are discharged from hospital, only to find there is no support in the community, so have to be readmitted to hospital, it was warned.

Fewer than one in 10 of 2,600 community nurses polled by the RCN said they had enough time to meet the needs of their patients, while nine out of 10 revealed that their caseload had increased in the past year.

Dr Peter Carter, general secretary of the RCN, said: “Yet again, and despite numerous warnings, NHS organisations are making short-sighted cuts across the UK. Nurses are being stretched too thin, and many are approaching breaking point. Inevitably, patient care is going to suffer.

“We are now seeing a clear and worrying picture of a health service which is struggling. It is struggling to keep people out of hospital because of pressures on the community, and it is struggling to discharge them with support when they leave. Very soon, patients will be left with nowhere to turn.”

Health Minister Simon Burns said: “The Health and Social Care Act will make shifting care out of hospitals and closer to people’s homes simpler. No one should stay in hospital longer than they need to and we are already investing £300 million to help people return to their homes with the support that they need more quickly after a spell in hospital.”

Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg denied that the NHS was about to “break” and said the Government did not “recognise” the figures produced by the RCN. He told ITV’s Daybreak: “We simply do not recognise them, we actually think the numbers are relatively stable. This year we are training about double the number of community nurses and health visitors than we did last year.”

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham said: “If the Government wishes to close hospital beds and wards, it is absolutely essential that community services are protected. Andrew Lansley’s failure to do that suggests, worryingly, that he has no clear plan for the efficiency challenge. The NHS is beginning to feel the full effects of this Government’s mismanagement.”