NHS still needs 43,000 MORE nurses as one in eight job posts are empty and ‘government efforts to recruit more students have failed’
- Only five per cent of workers joining the force since 2010, data shows
- Patients safety remains at risk until shortages are met, experts said in response
- National Audit Office (NAO) warning comes amid coronavirus outbreak in UK
The NHS still needs 43,000 more nurses to meet patient demand in England, according to a new report.
One in eight posts are empty with only five per cent of workers joining the force since 2010, data shows.
This is despite the government’s ambitious efforts to draw more students in – which the National Audit Office (NAO) said have ‘failed to meet expectations’.
The stark warning from the parliamentary body comes after health officials said a Covid-19 epidemic was ‘likely’ in the UK, which would add further pressure to the NHS.
Patient safety remains at risk until shortages are met, experts said in response.
The NHS still needs 43,000 more nurses to meet patient demand in England
Officials from the NAO, which independently scrutinises public spending for Parliament, said nurses are ‘critical’ to the running of the health service.
But despite efforts to boost the workforce, there were over 43,000 vacancies reported by NHS trusts in July to September 2019, they added.
Vacancy rates as reported by NHS trusts were 12 per cent for nursing, higher than the overall staff vacancy rate of nine per cent, the NAO said.
While the overall numbers of nurses working in the NHS in England increased by five per cent between 2010 and 2019, there are still not enough, the report adds.
The problem is particularly acute in some areas of the health service; the authors detail a 38 per cent reduction in the number of nursing disability nurses during the same time frame.
In January last year, the NHS Long Term Plan acknowledged the need to increase staff numbers, noting that the biggest shortfalls were in nursing.
But the NAO said there is ‘significant time lag’ of at least three to four years before policies to train new nurses have an impact.
Commenting on the report, Public Accounts Committee chairwoman Meg Hillier, said: ‘As the coronavirus spreads, the importance of the NHS and nurses who look after us becomes ever more apparent.
‘There are 44,000 nursing vacancies. Plans to increase the numbers of nurses starting degrees have failed to meet expectations.
‘It takes three to four years for policies to train new nurses to have an impact.’
She added that the NHS People Plan, expected in the spring, ‘must be fully funded and finally start to tackle the real reasons why there are not enough nurses’.
Responding to the report, the NHS Confederation, which represents organisations across the healthcare sector, said next week’s Budget is an opportunity for the government to address the issue.
Susan Masters, the Royal College of Nursing’s director of nursing, policy and practice, added: ‘There simply aren’t enough nurses joining the profession in England to look after the health of the population.
‘Next week’s Budget is the perfect opportunity for the Government to respond to the workforce problems of NHS and social care.
‘We are calling for investment to remove financial barriers for nursing students, by paying for tuition fees and providing grants for the real costs of living.
‘Until there’s a law clarifying who is responsible and accountable for workforce in Government and throughout the health and care system, patient safety remains at risk’.
In December last year, the Conservative manifesto pledged to deliver ‘50,000 more nurses’ by 2024/25 – only for Boris Johnson to admit later that it would be only 31,000 new nurses.
An NHS spokesman said: ‘NHS hospitals successfully opened extra hospital beds at a record rate this winter, made possible by having over 7,700 extra nurses working across the NHS than last year.
‘But given the pressures on the NHS, the Government’s commitment to increase the number of nurses by 50,000, as well as invest in more new beds and facilities, will be crucial when it comes meeting the growing need for care.’
The report comes as cases of coronavirus in the UK saw the biggest day-on-day increase in coronavirus cases, with 85 people now confirmed to have the virus.
The jump comes as England’s chief medical officer, Professor Chris Whitty, warned that a UK epidemic is looking ‘likely’.
‘At this point in time we think it is likely, not definite, that we will move into onward transmission and an epidemic here in the UK,’ he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Wednesday.
WHY HAVE THERE BEEN NURSE SHORTAGES FOR SO LONG?
The UK is currently in the midst of something widely described as a ‘nursing crisis’.
In reality, the whole NHS is stuttering – but nursing is an area of particular concern.
Last January, the health service released its Long Term Plan, a document that sets out its priorities for healthcare over the next 10 years.
The document states that there are ‘significant staff shortages across the country in many parts of our workforce; however, shortages in nursing are the single biggest and most urgent we need to address’.
There are vacancies across all areas of nursing, with the most significant shortages in mental health, learning disability, primary and community nursing.
In hospital and community health services, there are around 40,000 reported vacancies in substantive nursing posts, with around 80 per cent of these shifts currently covered by bank and agency staff, and there are further pressures in primary care.
The report warns that this gap ‘widens to 68,500 (16 per cent) by 2023-24 without intervention, as demand for nurses grows faster than supply’.
The document puts the reasons behind these pressures down to the demand for health and care services as a result of a growing and ageing population, and the ever-increasing possibilities of medical science.
In December last year, the Conservative manifesto pledged to deliver ‘50,000 more nurses’ by 2024/25 – only for Boris Johnson to admit later that it would be only 31,000 new nurses, with the other 19,000 being nurses who already work for the NHS, and will be retained, or those coaxed back by return-to-practice initiatives.
The proposals were widely criticised and NHS workforce chief, Gavin Larner, allegedly slammed them in a private email for not having ‘trajectories or milestones’.
None of the proposals have yet translated into actual policy.
Brexit turmoil has also influenced nursing, with many foreign health professionals not knowing where they will stand post-EU exit.
Proposals released in 2018, stating that migrants would have to earn at least £30,000 a year would have barred more than 40 per cent of migrant nurses joining the NHS in 2017-18, according to the Nuffield Trust thinktank.
The think tank put the dire situation down to ‘poor planning and insufficient training numbers over many years’.
According to ONS figures, there were over one million people (913,789 full-time equivalents) working in healthcare roles in NHS hospitals in England in March 2019: six per cent were EU nationals and eight per cent non-EU nationals (excluding NHS infrastructure support staff).
Additionally, many point to the decision by George Osborne, as chancellor, to stop paying nursing students’ tuition fees and maintenance grants as a key factor in the nursing crisis.
The Conservatives have back tracked on the austerity measures rolled out two years ago, and are set to start paying young nurses’ bursaries again in September this year.
Their 2019 manifesto states that there will be 14,000 new nursing places, 5,000 nursing apprenticeships and an attempt to recruit 12,500 nursing professionals from abroad.
The NHS 10-year plan has a focus on retention. In partnership with NHS Employers, NHS Improvement launched the Retention Programme in June 2017.
The body says it aims to increase undergraduate supply of nurses, to stimulate demand and shift perceptions and that it wants to ‘improve the student experience and reduce attrition.’
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