17.07.14
NHS nursing staff figures up but finances still worrying – King’s Fund
Nursing staff figures in the NHS increased by almost 9,000 over the past six months to nearly 315,000 – the highest on record, a new King’s Fund report has revealed.
However, the report also revealed that a quarter of NHS trust finance directors expect to overspend their budgets this year.
Researchers stated that this underlines the difficult choice facing hospitals: whether to balance the books or maintain quality of services, with many choosing to recruit more nurses despite their budgets being stretched to the limit.
Other key findings of the report are that only 40% of finance directors are confident of hitting their average cost improvement (4.7%) target for 2014/15; also 4.9% of patients spent four or more hours in A&E over the last quarter, the highest level for this time of year since 2004/05; and 9.9% of inpatients waited more than 18 weeks for hospital treatment during the quarter, the highest level since early 2011.
John Appleby, chief economist at The King's Fund, said: “Our latest quarterly report paints a picture of a service under huge pressure, with cracks beginning to appear in NHS performance.
“The increase in the nursing workforce signals a very welcome commitment to improving care, although it remains to be seen whether hospitals will be able to sustain current staffing levels when money becomes tighter later in the year.”
Tom Sandford, director of the Royal College of Nursing England, added that the increase in registered nurses has gone some way to redressing the shortage seen over the past few years, but more will be needed to cope with ever increasing demand.
“This report paints a worrying picture for the future of the NHS and all political parties need to give us clarity about how they plan to fund the health service,” he said. “It is not only finances which are putting patient care at risk. The RCN’s research has found that trusts are struggling to fill up to 20,000 vacant nursing posts. A nursing workforce crisis is looming, and attacks on the pay and conditions of staff are making it harder for trusts to retain experienced nursing staff, let alone recruit more.”
But the government has dismissed the report into NHS finances and insisted it has spent enough on the health service to make it “sustainable in the long-term”.
A Department of Health spokeswoman said: “Pessimistic predictions of this type are nothing new, but we know that the NHS remains stable. Some parts of the system are under pressure due to an unprecedented rise in demand – which is why we have taken tough decisions to increase the NHS budget by £12.7bn over this Parliament, and are ensuring the NHS is sustainable in the long-term.”
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