Health boards ‘compromising care’, say nurses

Helen Puttick, Health Correspondent

8 Dec 2010

Health boards are ignoring guidance on safe staffing levels to save money, nursing leaders in Scotland have warned.

The Royal College of Nursing Scotland said “workforce and workload planning tools” had been disregarded as managers shed staff to balance the books.

Two-fifths of nurses reported that care was being compromised at least once a week by staffing shortages, in a recent UK-wide RCN survey.

Their new report, published this morning, said there is a clear link between failing care and poor staffing levels.

It found that complications such as deep vein thrombosis, urinary tract infections and pressure ulcers are only avoidable if sufficient numbers of nurses, with the right skills, are employed in the right place.

RCN Scotland director Theresa Fyffe said: “It is a great shame that the sophisticated workforce and workload planning tools for the nursing workforce are being overlooked as health boards try to save money by not replacing nurses and other staff when they leave.

“This does nothing to ensure that we have the right nurses with the right skills and reinforces our call that health boards must be more up front about their finances and the decisions they are making to cut the workforce, which could be detrimental to patient care.”

The squeeze on public spending has hit NHS budgets and Ms Fyffe said she understood difficult choices had to be made, but she added: “These choices must be evidence-based rather than being reliant on chance if they are to be sustainable and if patient care is to be protected.”

More than 4000 jobs – including 1500 nursing and midwifery posts – are expected to go in the Scottish NHS this year as every mainland health board tries to make savings on their staffing budget.

Reproduced with permission of The Herald and Times Group Ltd.