Desperate NHS to bring in 2,000 untrained nurses

UP to 2,000 untrained nurses are to be deployed in hospitals amid a shortage of qualified staff.

Dubbed nursing on the cheap, the scheme will involve recruits giving patients potentially lethal drugs including morphine. They will also be asked to insert tubes and monitor patients’ breathing, temperature and heart rate.

The so- called nursing associates will go on wards from January to start a two-year course combining on-the-job training and lectures at university. Critics fear they will be used by hospitals to replace qualified nurses who have spent at least three years at university and usually have several more years of experience on wards.

Figures earlier this year revealed that as many as one in ten NHS nursing posts are empty – equivalent to 23,500 full-time staff. The Government slashed training places between 2010 and 2013, leading to a shortfall of nurses coming up from university. Demand has also been rising from an ageing population.

The first wave of 2,000 associates will start in one of 11 NHS trusts in January. These include Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children in London, Nottingham University Hospitals and Central Manchester University Hospitals. Eventually all hospitals may have them.

Draft proposals of their job, drawn up by the Government, were leaked to HSJ [Health Service Journal]. The document says responsibilities will include working out the dose of a drug and administering it. This could include giving diabetics insulin, or the terminally-ill morphine. But the dose is precise for each patient, and a mistake can be fatal.

The document also states they will be responsible for inserting tubes – which could include lines to deliver drugs to the heart. If fitted incorrectly or not changed regularly, fatal infections may develop.

Labour health spokesman Justin Madders said: ‘Jeremy Hunt is trying to fund nursing on the cheap. While I am sure that nursing associates will do their best for patients, for some tasks it is safer and better for patients to rely on the skill and experience of a qualified nurse.’

While the average nurse earns £23,000, salaries for the associates will start at £15,000, rising to £16,000. At the end they will be awarded a ‘Foundation level’ degree which will enable them to do a fast-track training course to become a qualified nurse, lasting another two years.

Lisa Bayliss-Pratt, director of nursing at Health Education England, said the document outlining their tasks was a guide and the associates would support registered nurses ‘in a multi-disciplinary team’.