Nursing shortage ‘puts elderly patients at risk’

A shortage of qualified nurses is putting elderly patients at risk, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is warning.

The college says that on a typical older people’s ward, one nurse cares for around nine patients, which is “not enough to provide basic, safe care”.

Older people are particularly at risk because they have more complicated health needs and often need other forms of care such as comforting or help with eating and drinking.

It says the number of patients per nurse should not exceed seven and has called on the government to provide a “patient guarantee” to ensure staff are not overworked.

The RCN claims the situation has become worse in recent years because nurses who leave the profession are not being replaced by staff at the same level of experience and qualification.

RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said: “As health boards come under increasing financial pressure to deliver the same services to more and more people, they are saving money when nurses leave by not replacing them or by replacing them with nurses and healthcare support workers at lower paid bands.

“Older people often have more complex health conditions so they must be given the best care by an appropriate mix of qualified nurses and healthcare support workers.

“This is particularly the case if stays in hospital are to be minimised so older people can return home or to a care home as soon as reasonably possible.”

“While I welcome the Scottish Government’s commitment to improving the care of older people, today’s RCN report lays bare the need to seriously tackle the issue of staffing levels in our older people’s wards and I therefore urge the Government to give serious consideration to the patient guarantee of a minimum of one professionally qualified nurse per seven patients.”

Callum Chomczuk, senior policy and parliamentary officer at Age Scotland, said: “Unfortunately the current focus on delivering healthcare in the acute sector, coupled with an ageing population and the associated health demands, means that the findings in the RCN’s report come as no surprise.

“And while it is true that low staffing levels on hospital wards can seriously compromise older patients’ care and dignity, what we need is a shift in the balance of care in which resources are focused in the community and on keeping older people healthy, safe and out of hospitals.”