Insufficient nursing staff ‘is causing problems in community care’

Royal College of Nursing report claims panic drive to fill hospital opportunities after NHS scandals has left home based services greatly understaffed

A panicked push to employ nursing staff for hospitals, following a number of damning NHS scandals, has ignored a growing problem in community care, the Royal College of Nursing reports. Take a look at Nursing Care Homes for much more on community care.

In spite of NHS plans to shift care from hospitals, the community medical workforce has shrunk drastically in the past five years at the same time as the amount of nursing posts in hospitals has risen.

The workforce is down by about 3,300 nurses, including 2,000 district nurses who provide care for folks in their own houses or residential institutions - a 28% cut to just what the RCN says is an integral part of the community workforce.

Inside a report - The Fragile Frontline - published on Sun , the college calls on the next government to improve resources for community health, so mental and physical care may be safely offered outside hospitals by a highly skilled workforce.

Peter Carter, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN, said: “Whoever creates the next govt should study this report and act right away to grow the nursing staff and make certain it will sustain demand with a maintainable and long-term plan.

“Unlike numerous issues confronting the health service, the answer to the nursing workforce is very easy and is a matter of political will. With more people eager to nurse than in the past, the next government has the capacity to increase coaching places and increase the availability of medical workers. If it won't, it'll be failing a generation of patients.

“As the election gets near there will be numerous promises, and most will be forgotten about. However the next govt can feel comfortable knowing that it will be judged in five years’ time on whether there is a correctly financed health service which is fit for the Modern day.”

Right after Sir Robert Francis’s inquiry into failings at Mid Staffordshire NHS Trust in 2013, the link between terrible patient care and dangerous staffing levels became a sudden issue for the government to handle.

Trusts began increasing the number of nursing staff on wards all around England to act on suggestions by the Francis report as well as in response to political pressure. Between 2010 and 2014, the total nursing, midwifery and health visiting workforce has grown consequently.

Having said that, the drive to replenish employment levels was primarily limited to intense, maternity and neo-natal and paediatric nursing settings, it is reported by the RCN. Mental health settings have instead lost 3,986 nursing posts and learning disability settings have lost 1,586.

In 2011 the govt started the health visiting programme, targeted at raising the number of health visitors to in excess of 12,200 by March 2015. There's been a rise of 2,691 health visitors since May 2010, bringing the total to 10,783 in December 2014. However, once the impact of health visitors is subtracted, community settings like care homes have lost 3,332 experienced nursing posts.

The RCN claims in its report that, although it supports increases to the health visiting workforce, this should “not be at the expense of other job roles that are important to patients receiving essential top quality care in the community”.

Shadow health secretary Andy Burnham, responding to the report, stated he was dedicated to having much more nursing staff into the system.

The Observer mentioned a week ago that the increase in the nursing workforce was attained by getting more than a 1 / 4 of new employees from overseas. Frontline clinical staff numbers went up by 11,100 under the coalition government, the Conservatives state, and it had committed to around 10,000 more community healthcare workers - 5,000 doctors and 5,000 drawn from nurses and allied health care professionals.

Burnham said that on “day one” in power he would expand the training places, with a mission of 20,000 extra medical workers within the following 5yrs.