‘UK should follow Wales’ lead on safe staff levels’
THE rest of the UK needs to follow Wales’ lead and introduce laws to ensure “safe” nurse staffing levels, a leading union has warned.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) says NHS patients across the UK will be at risk of falling care standards unless all four countries have such legislation in place.
It has called for safe staffing to be enshrined in law across the UK for the first time as it exposes a “lethal cocktail” that is leaving record numbers of nursing jobs vacant.
RCN Wales Director Tina Donnelly said: “In Wales, after much hard work and effective engagement with politicians within the National Assembly for Wales, from across the political spectrum, we have achieved the Nurse Staffing (Levels) Wales Act 2016.
“We have been lobbying for this since 2009. This groundbreaking legislation holds health boards in Wales accountable for nurse staffing in acute medical and surgical wards.
“However we need the legislation to be extended to all areas of nursing.
“The RCN Wales has worked on this legislation since 2009, because we recognised a long time ago that only legislation changes the behaviours of those involved in workforce planning and management.
“Alongside our work to embed safe staffing levels into the law, the RCN in Wales has also worked closely with the National Assembly to dramatically increase the numbers of student commissions each year ahead of the legislation being enacted.”
“This means that Welsh health boards are in a strong position to comply with the legislation on staffing numbers.
“The RCN UK successfully campaigned last year to reinstate nurses onto the ‘Shortage Occupation list’ so that overseas recruitment could continue.”
Number of student commissions for nurse training in Wales: 2012: 919 2013: 1011 2014: 1053 2015: 1283 2016: 1418 Planned for 2017: 1610 New figures from NHS trusts in England revealed that one in nine nursing posts (11.1%) are unfilled.
Similarly, they suggest that care providers have increasingly hired fewer registered nursing staff.
In Wales there are around 1,200 nursing vacancies in the Welsh NHS and the Royal College of Nursing Wales estimates that there are a further 1,700 nursing vacancies across the third and independent sectors of care provision.
RCN Wales has produced an overview of staffing numbers in Wales that shows overall numbers of employed NHS nurses in Wales have been “static” for years, although this does not reflect increased patient numbers, higher patient dependency and higher bed occupancy.
The union says overall numbers can also “obscure very sharp shortages” of registered nurses and nursing is some specific fields, like neonatal nursing and children’s nursing in the community.
Tina Donnelly claims the Welsh NHS need to reduce its reliance on agency staff which is having a massive financial impact.
In 2015-6 the cost of agency nursing in Wales to the NHS was more than £48m – the equivalent value of an extra 2,182 newly qualified nurses.
But she welcomed the Welsh Government’s new international recruitment campaign to encourage nurses to train, work and live in Wales.
As part of the campaign, it was announced that bursaries for eligible student nurses, midwives and allied health professionals will continue to be available in Wales in 2018-19.
The bursary will be based upon individuals committing, in advance, to taking up the opportunity to work in Wales, post qualification, for a period of two years.
“The messages that this campaign conveys are vitally important in the current healthcare climate; acting as a reminder of the benefits our country truly has to offer to those who decide to train, and remain, as a health care professional in Wales,” said Tina Donnelly.
“Encouraging these individuals to work in Wales must continue until we see stable workforce levels that our NHS requires to function efficiently and effectively, allowing patients to receive the highest standard of care possible.”
Speaking about introducing “safe” staffing legislation in other parts of the UK, Janet Davies, chief executive and general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said:
“A lethal cocktail of factors in the NHS has resulted in too few registered nurses and patient care is suffering.
“Pressure and demand has spiralled upwards at the very moment nurses’ pay headed the other way. They stay behind after 12-hour shifts to give patients extra care and go home exhausted and sometimes in tears. Too many now feel no alternative but to leave nursing.
“There is no certainty about the next generation of UK nurses joining either – deterred by low pay, pressure and new training costs – so the Government desperately needs to keep the experienced ones we have.
“When finances are tight, nursing budgets are slashed and patients can pay the highest price. Hospitals are hiring unregistered staff and delegating jobs that should be done by trained nurses. The Government cannot allow ‘nursing on the cheap.’
“Ministers must draw a line under this false economy and address safe staffing levels in new legislation. Nursing directors should not have to fight for the funding.”