Shortage of staff means politicians ‘abusing good will of nurses’

The Royal College of Nursing have said that the good will of nurses in England is being abused by politicians who have been unable to deal with a critical shortage of staff.

There are currently as much as 40,000 vacancies amongst the profession, which is around one in nine posts. However, a report from earlier this year has warned that vacancies could rise to around 70,000 in five years and 100,000 in ten years if action was not taken to stop the rise.

Dame Donna Kinnair, general secretary of the RCN, will call for an improvement in staffing levels at a speech to the RCN’s annual conference on Monday.

She will say “We will not stop until people are held to account for the desperate shortages each and every one of us has witnessed. Politicians must stop short-changing the public.

“They must stop the rot and put an end to the workforce crisis in nursing.

“Rather than only looking at the cost of educating and employing nurses, the government must think about the true cost – financial and human – of not doing it.

“Employers, decision-makers and ministers with the power to change things should not let individual nurses take the blame for systematic failings.

“The goodwill of nursing staff is being abused and politicians must know it is running out. I will not stand by while this profession is denigrated.”

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Posted by Tony May, Partner/head of Clinical Negligence Department, Chadwick Lawrence LLP (tonymay@chadlaw.co.uk ), medical negligence lawyers and clinical negligence solicitors in Huddersfield, Leeds, Wakefield and Halifax, West Yorkshire.

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