‘OUR NURSING workforce is in a state of crisis, with more than 40,000 vacancies in England alone across our health service, from A&E to elderly care, this puts patients at serious risk.’
Royal College of Nursing (RCN) Chief Executive and General Secretary, Janet Davies issued the anxious warning on Monday after new figures were released showing a 96% drop in nurses from the EU registering to practice in the UK. ”We rely on the contributions of EU staff and this drop in numbers could have severe consequences for patients and their families,’ she continued.
‘These figures should act as a wake-up call to the Government as they enter Brexit negotiations. EU staff should be left in no doubt that their contributions are welcome and valued.’ There has been a sharp drop in the number of nurses registering to work in the UK since the EU referendum, figures suggest.
Last July, 1,304 nurses from the EU joined the Nursing and Midwifery Council register.
That compares with just 46 in April this year, a fall of 96%. The Health Foundation, which obtained the figures from the NMC, said they should act as a ‘wake-up call’ as the fall could compromise patient safety.
The think tank said the NHS was already struggling with nurse vacancies and, without this supply line, shortages could get worse. In May, research by the Royal College of Nursing found one in nine posts in England was vacant. The union said it meant the NHS was 40,000 nurses short of what was needed.
The figures, obtained by the Health Foundation under the Freedom of Information Act, cover the numbers applying to go on the register, so it does not necessarily mean they are employed by the NHS. But they give an indication of the supply line from the EU which provides a significant proportion of the workforce.
Anita Charlesworth, director of research and economics at the Health Foundation, said the drop could not be more ‘stark’. ‘Without EU nurses, it will be even harder for the NHS and other employers to find the staff they need to provide safe patient care. The findings should be a wake-up call to politicians and health service leaders.’
Shadow health secretary Jonathan Ashworth said: ‘Theresa May’s weak and unstable government has pushed NHS services to the brink, and it is patients who will pay the price. Our health service has always relied on the contribution of overseas workers, yet these staff are being forced out by this government’s neglect and disregard.’
Overall there are 650,000 nurses on the register. Just over 36,000 of these have been trained in the EU, 5.5% of the total. Another 67,000 come from outside the EU with the rest from the UK.
The RCN also responded to the General Election result.
RCN leader Janet Davies, said: ‘No matter which government is formed, it has more than Brexit to resolve in the months and years to come. The next Prime Minister must not become consumed by those negotiations to the detriment of patients and the people who care for them.
‘In the time it takes to negotiate Britain’s exit, the NHS will fall further into disrepair unless the government begins to listen. Health and care services must be a greater priority for this government than they were for the last. They must be funded to a higher level and we must see action on election promises, especially around mental health and the right to remain for health and care workers from across the EU.
‘Hospitals, clinics and communities across the country are short of the nursing staff they need to provide safe care. They are being driven out of the NHS by levels of pay that are as damaging to patient care standards as they are to a nurse’s family life. The Government’s pay cap does nothing to help fill the 40,000 vacant nurse jobs in England alone.
‘Later this month, the Royal College of Nursing will launch a summer-long protest, calling on the Government to scrap the 1 per cent pay cap. It is simple: a pay rise that is deliberately held below inflation is in fact a pay cut. The cap, after years of pay freezes, means that nursing staff are 14 per cent and at least £3,000 a year worse off than they were in 2010. This summer, the Government has one last chance to scrap the cap.’
• Opposition to the Naylor Review, a 46-page ‘NHS estate rationalisation study’ published two months ago, is growing. The Naylor Review is a programme of Tory plans to force the NHS to sell off property worth billions. Tory Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt asked for the report on land sales to be drawn up and a 46-page report was published on March 31 by Sir Robert Naylor, former boss of the NHS trust that runs University College London Hospital.
In the main part of Naylor’s dossier, he recommends selling around £2billion of NHS land to build 26,000 homes, rising to £5billion if extended to ‘high-value’ sites in London. This could equal 5 million square metres of NHS estate – more than three times the size of London’s Hyde Park – being sold off to the property developers. Suggestions in the report include selling off parts of car parks and making the other parts multi-storey.
The report suggests getting rid of ‘inefficient buildings’, claiming that this will ‘save’ £500million a year in maintenance and repair costs and raise £5billion in sales. NHS land is controlled by NHS Property Services Ltd since the Health and Social Care Act. In a little-noticed comment at the time, Theresa May confirmed the Tories will back the report if they win the election.
She told the BBC’s Andrew Neil: ‘There’s a report that was done on the NHS, the Naylor Report, which set out what was needed. And we’re backing the proposals in the Naylor Report.’
She said it would release £10billion from ‘a variety of sources’, including land sales, to fund ‘the most ambitious programme on investment and buildings and technology the NHS has ever seen’. That triggered a slow building of online reaction, with a video about it shared by singer Charlotte Church and a story being shared on left-wing site Evolve Politics.
Under the Tory plan, hospitals that don’t sell land will be punished. Providers that fail to draw up ‘sufficiently stretching plans… should not be granted access to capital funding,’ the Naylor Report says. That means that building and repair projects would not be funded unless they involve the selling off of some of their land. And hospitals will be ‘bribed’ to sell up fast.
The Naylor Report calls for ‘urgent action to accelerate’ land sales, so hospitals will get a ‘2-for-1 offer’ – meaning that if a hospital gets a sale, the government steps in and doubles the cash.
This cash will be offered on a ‘first come first served basis’ for a limited time, probably five years, sparking fears of hospitals selling off land to private developers cheaply, or in a badly thought-through way, in their rush to get the funds.
Opponents say that it is a ‘bribe’ to sell off NHS assets quickly, with hospitals so starved of cash, they have little choice. ‘The general consensus is that the current NHS capital investment is insufficient to fund transformation and maintain the current estate,’ the Naylor Report claims.
Dr Kailash Chand, the former deputy chair of the British Medical Association, has branded the Naylor Report ‘an outline to sell off the NHS.’ He warned: ‘Hospitals, clinics and other NHS property are squarely in the sights of the purchasers. Theresa May has given us a huge clue as to how her government would finance ‘improvements’ to NHS services, and they’re absolutely scandalous.’
Labour’s shadow health secretary Jon Ashworth has spoken out against the Naylor Review, saying: ‘Under the Tories hospitals are crumbling. The Tory response is to now sell off buildings and land with no explanation of when the NHS will see a penny piece of the proceeds.’
