Nurse union attacks NHS job cuts

Nurses are gathering for their annual conference

Nurses’ leaders say patients are being harmed by job cuts in the profession caused by continuing NHS deficits.The Royal College of Nursing, whose conference opens on Sunday, claims that more than 22,000 NHS posts have been lost in England in the past 18 months.

The government says the union’s figures are out of date and misleading. It adds that the number of compulsory redundancies has been very small.

Nurse leaders said specialist nurses had been particularly hard hit.

In its report Our NHS - Today and Tomorrow, the union said the health service was facing a debt crisis that was “real and entrenched”.

The RCN study, compiled from reports by members and NHS board papers, said trusts had been forced to shed 22,300 posts through a combination of redundancies, recruitment freezes and post closures.

The financial crisis was also hitting patient care, the study claimed.

Surplus predicted

According to the latest government figures, the NHS will have a small surplus overall for the financial year just finished.

Forecasts from the third quarter of 2006-7 showed that the NHS was in line to finish the financial year with a £13m surplus.

This is despite one in three hospitals and primary care trusts predicting deficits.

Nurses are the backbone of the health service - it is terrible that they are suffering due to this government’s failures Norman Lamb, of the Lib Dems

RCN general secretary Dr Peter Carter said he stood by the RCN’s figures.

“The deficits issue is not history - it is real, entrenched and continues to hit patient care, services and jobs.

“Yes, the NHS achieved overall financial balance last year - but at what cost?

“Our NHS remains caught up in a rip tide of cuts, rushed reforms and poor workforce planning.

“This is hitting services, hurting patients, undermining staff morale and threatening the hard-won progress made over recent years.”

Howard Catton, head of policy at the RCN, told BBC Five Live that the union’s figures had been calculated by “monitoring the loss of posts for the last eighteen months”.

“It’s comprised of posts which have been deleted, vacancies that haven’t been filled and some redundancies as well,” he added.

‘Service cuts’

The RCN claims specialist nurses, which have been trained to provide expert care in areas such as diabetes and heart disease and have a range of enhanced powers like prescribing, had been particularly effected.

A poll of 807 specialist nurses for the report found one in five were facing a risk of redundancy, while half were aware of cuts in their specialist area.

We recognise it has been tough for NHS staff over the last 12 months, but we have now put the NHS on a sound financial footing for the future Health minister Andy Burnham

June James, who has been working as a specialist diabetes nurse for the last 12 years, said: “Posts are being downgraded and services cut. I think it shows a lack of respect for the job we do.”

Liberal Democrat health spokesman Norman Lamb described the report as “devastating” for the NHS.

“Nurses are the backbone of the health service - it is terrible that they are suffering due to this government’s failures,” he said.

And shadow health secretary Andrew Lansley said it confirmed the Conservative Party’s fears that “financial mismanagement would lead to job cuts and damage to services for patients”.

“It is a damning indictment of the cost of Gordon Brown’s NHS cuts and Patricia Hewitt’s poor stewardship,” he added.

‘Improvements’

But health minister Andy Burnham dismissed the RCN figures.

“This RCN report presents an outdated and misleading picture,” he said.

“We recognise it has been tough for NHS staff over the last 12 months, but we have now put the NHS on a sound financial footing for the future.”

The Department of Health said the figures being used by the RCN related to the “natural turnover of staff” experienced in any organisation - including posts not being refilled after staff leave, and agency staff not being replaced.

It said the actual number of compulsory redundancies was 1,446 of which only 303 were clinical positions, such as doctors or nurses.

Mr Burnham later told BBC Five Live, the NHS was “performing for patients better than ever before”.

“The waiting lists are at an historic low. A&E care is better than it has ever been.

“People generally do not wait longer than four hours, whereas trolley waits and long, long, days spent at A&E were commonplace in the past.”

The RCN, which represents 400,000 nurses, published its report to kick start its annual conference in Harrogate.