Welsh taskforce to address shortage of nurses in social care
Following the All Wales Nurses Conference held in Llandudno on September 17 a task force has been set up to tackle the issue of nurse shortages in social care settings across Wales.
The joint task force will be made up from NHS officials and representatives of the independent care sector which is bearing the brunt of nurse shortages.
Some care homes have already been forced to close because of the shortage of qualified nursing staff. Two homes owned by HC-One in the Bridgend area announced they would close over the summer but the shortage is a national one. Recently Care Forum Wales (CFW) chair Mario Kreft (pictured) told the BBC that care homes faced a recruitment crisis, particularly those homes registered for nursing care.
He said: “If we don’t bring more nurses into the independent sector then we’re going to find that the closures which will inevitably come about will mean that more people will have to reside or find their services in a hospital bed.
“If you’re assessed as needing nursing care in a care home registered for nursing, the only feasible alternative if that home is to close is that either that you go to a similar establishment or a hospital bed.
“That means we are sleepwalking into a perfect storm unless urgent action is taken,” added Mr Kreft.
In CFW’s July Enewsletter, Kim Ombler, chair of CFW’s chair of the north Wales nurses forum and director of Anglesey Nursing Home, Quality Care Wales, said: “We are facing this issue and I know of other nursing homes in Anglesey and Gwynedd who are having to go abroad to recruit staff. I will be looking at recruiting nurses from Spain – we have tried to recruit locally for the last six months without success.”
She continued: “It’s a combination of factors that is causing this. There’s sometimes seen to be a stigma attached to working in nursing homes because of negative press and a perception that we offer a lack of career structure, but this isn’t true. We also know that when planning student nursing numbers the needs of the independent sector have not been taken into account although we have recently addressed these issues with the Chief Nurse.
“This is something that needs to be looked at urgently, at government level. We are concerned that this crisis in recruiting nurses will also be replicated across the sector,” she added.
