[SEE BELOW FOR LATE NEWS]The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has highlighted the large scale shortage of nurses across the NHS in England. They say the NHS is probably operating with 20,000 fewer nurses than it needs.
The RCN points out that since May 2010 the NHS lost 3,859 full-time nurses, midwives and health visitors and that there has been a 12.7 per cent cut in the number of nursing student places commissioned since 2010-2011.
This, they say, would lead to a shortfall of 47,000 registered nurses by 2016. Their research also shows that many hospital trusts are recruiting from abroad.
One of these is the Great Western Hospitals Foundation Trust. As Marlborough News Online reported in June, the GWH is investing £1.1 million in recruiting extra nurses and £680,000 in extra midwives.
So far this year they have recruited 252 nursing and midwifery staff. They have 74 more qualified nurses and midwives than this time last year.
After enquiries, Marlborough News Online was told: “Most of the extra nurses and midwives are now with us, however we are still waiting for some of these staff to arrive and they will be with us shortly. We are still continuing our recruitment efforts to make sure we fill the vacancies we have and to reduce our reliance on agency staff.”
The hospital has sent small teams of senior nurses to Portugal, Spain and Ireland to interview candidates.
“With demand for nurses at an all-time high we had to look both at home and abroad to get the number of extra nurses we need to support patients and colleagues on the wards and in the community.”
GWH does not just need nurses for the Swindon hospital, it also runs the NHS community health care across Wiltshire and is responsible for several community hospitals – including Savernake Hospital.
“Although it’s a challenging time for Trusts with the number of nurses in training having fallen over the past few years, and with many Trusts searching in the same areas, the work we’ve been doing this year has started to pay off.”
The Francis report into the Mid-Staffs scandal called for better nurse training and better ratios of nurses to patients. But the Department of Health has declined to bring in mandatory staffing levels.
LATE NEWS: The very reliable Health Service Journal reports that the government’s full response to the Francis Report (due next week) will include hospital boards being ordered to review and publish nurse staffing levels at least twice a year. But the government is thought unlikely to mention specific ratios of nurses to patients. After he published his report, Mr Francis said that the nurse to patient should never fall below one to eight.
