04.04.12
Nursing cuts identified as possible savings
NHS London has identified potential savings in 18 hospital trusts through cuts to nursing budgets, it has been revealed. Trusts are investigating different approaches to achieve savings and become financially independent for the deadline of April 2012 to reach Foundation Trust status.
Documents obtained by the magazine Nursing Times suggests that savings of £7m could be made at North Middlesex University Hospital Trust, £54m at Imperial College Healthcare Trust and more than £20m at Newham University Hospital Trust.
The Royal College of Nursing has criticised the proposals, warning that it could lead to medicines being wrongly administered. Howard Catton, head of policy at the RCN, told the Guardian: “There’s good evidence that mortality rates go up as there is a failure to spot patients in trouble and rescue them.”
The NHS London report stated: “Other factors, such as ways of working, may be more important than resourcing levels and, whilst some individual clinical areas will undoubtedly require more resource (including increasing the numbers working in those areas), efficiency improvements will enable others to deliver improved quality with fewer staff.”
NHS London said in a statement that the report used “three different sets of figures to calculate potential savings for each trust and all represent theoretical productivity improvements, not a plan to implement changes. The set of figures used in the model are based on a trust performing optimally at every possible area including nursing. No trust has been asked to achieve these reductions.”
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