07.01.16
Some London trusts reporting 30% nurse vacancies
More than 10,000 nursing roles, or 17% of total registered posts, were left unfilled in the capital last year – with some trusts reporting vacancy rates of almost one-third of needed nurse staff.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) study, based on Freedom of Information requests, indicated a deepened nursing shortage crisis in London, considering vacant posts took up 14% of registered nursing posts in 2014 and just 11% in 2013.
The analysis also elucidated considerable variation across the capital’s healthcare system. In some trusts, the vacancy rate figure even hit an alarming high of 30%, such as in North West Healthcare and South West London Mental Health.
RCN’s London base said this has been motivated by “historic cuts to training places, plus the ongoing pay freeze imposed by the government”, meaning several trusts were unable to find much-needed permanent staff.
The organisation suggested that the shortage was forcing NHS employers to “choose between putting patients at risk by running wards short of staff, or turning to expensive solutions” like agency workers or overseas recruitment.
Its regional director, Bernell Bussue, said: “The problem is partly down to short-sighted workforce planning which saw training posts cut in the past, meaning there aren’t enough home grown nurses coming through the system.
“The government urgently needs to give nursing staff a pay rise at a level which helps them settle in the capital for the long term, before staffing shortages start to damage the quality of care which London’s patients receive.”
But a Department of Health spokesperson said the government’s official statistics show Londoners “have already benefitted from 3,400 additional nurses since May 2010 and this is down to continued government investment in the frontline”.
An NHS England spokeswoman also argued that the study’s July figures did not reflect drops in agency spend since the government’s cap came into force in November.
“In London we are looking at new ways to recruit both new and returning nurses while retaining nurses already in post so that we are reaching our planned staffing levels,” she told the BBC.
“This includes a programme in which senior nurses in the capital are working together to create innovative career pathways and making London a more desirable place to work.”
Commenting on the figures, the capital’s mayor, Boris Johnson MP, argued that “you can afford to be a nurse and live in London”, but did not deny that the costs of living the city are “extremely high”.
Nursing shortages have been one of the centrepiece debates across the health service lately, with the RCN also recently criticising the government for delivering a “crushing blow” to future nursing students by removing their bursaries.
Whitehall has also endured a series of attacks against its migration cap that could have ultimately been responsible for a crisis in nurse recruitment, according to the Home Affairs Select Committee.
Health secretary Jeremy Hunt has, however, decided to temporarily lift restrictions on recruiting overseas nurses, but the Migration Advisory Committee is yet to decide on the permanence of this decision by 15 February.