Now, this is frightening. Via The Guardian: ‘We don't have enough nurses to keep all our patients safe,’ says RCN leader. Excerpt:
There are not enough nurses to safely care for patients in the UK, according to the body that oversees the profession, and many of those who are working are suffering from anxiety and burnout after a gruelling nine months treating Covid patients.
A year after the prime minister pledged during the 2019 election campaign to add 50,000 nurses to the NHS, the Royal College of Nursing has accused Boris Johnson of being “disingenuous” for claiming the government is meeting this 2025 target.
Johnson claimed last week that the government had “14,800 of the 50,000 nurses already” during prime minister’s questions in the Commons.
Yet the latest NHS figures show there were 36,655 vacancies for nursing staff in England in September, with the worst shortages affecting mental health care and acute hospitals. Staff in some intensive care units (ICUs) have quit since the pandemic, with those whom the Observer spoke to choosing to work instead in supermarkets or as dog-walkers.
Dame Donna Kinnair, the RCN’s chief executive and general secretary, said: “The simple, inescapable truth is that we do not have enough nursing staff in the UK to safely care for patients in hospitals, clinics, their own homes or anywhere else.”
She said that even before the pandemic, “heavy demand” was rising faster than the “modest increases” in staff numbers. Last week the Health Foundation thinktank said there were 5.5% more nurses in English acute hospitals compared with last year, but some of these were nurses who had previously retired or left the profession, and had returned to help during the pandemic.
The thinktank said that even if the government met its target, 50,000 nurses would not be enough to recover from the pandemic.
“With tens of thousands of vacancies in the health and care system right now, any suggestion by politicians that a small increase equals success is disingenuous,” Kinnair said. “We know many returned to support the pandemic, and 35% of our members surveyed this year said they were considering leaving the profession.”
She said the solution was “honesty and investment” from the government.
With Covid-19 surging in Wales, Northern Ireland and London, many senior NHS leaders around the UK are concerned about the strain on medical staff, who have worked in full PPE and stressful conditions for nine months.
