A study has found that NHS patients are suffering unnoticed and in some cases dying alone because there are not enough qualified nurses on the services.
According to the Royal College of Nursing, analysis of a survey they conducted found that only a third of services had sufficient qualified nurses.
The union has also collected evidence from nurses who say they are always being “rushed” and asked to do more; working at “completely unsafe” levels of care; and having to make “heartbreaking” decisions about who gets seen and who doesn’t.
Shortages mean that individual nurses are often caring for dozens of patients at a time, the RCN said. The RCN has called for limits on the maximum number of patients for which one nurse can be responsible.
Nicola Ranger, Acting General Secretary and Chief Executive of the RCNsaid the investigation showed patients were being abandoned.
“In every health and care setting, nurses are fighting a losing battle to keep patients safe,” she said. “Without safety-critical limits on the maximum number of patients they can care for, nurses are made responsible for dozens at a time, often with complex needs.
“It is dangerous for patients and demotivating for nursing staff.”
The RCN surveyed more than 11,000 nursing staff across the UK for its latest ‘last shift’ survey, asking them about their experiences during their most recent shifts.
The results include:
In hospitals and community settings, 32% of hospital nurses and 36% of community nurses reported that their service had the planned number of registered nurses.
One in three hospital services lacked at least a quarter of the required qualified nurses.
In the community, nearly four in ten services lacked half of the planned number of registered nurses.
Across all settings, 81% of respondents said there are not enough nurses to meet patient safety needs.
In emergency departments, a significant number of nurses reported caring for more than 51 patients.
A nurse working in the community in the south-west of England told the inquiry: “There are days when 60 visits are unallocated because we don’t have enough staff. Every day we are asked to do more. We are always in a rush.”
Another, who also works in the community in the south of England, said: “We leave more than 50 patients needing nursing care unseen every day due to poor staffing levels. This leads to an increase in hospital admissions and deaths. It is left up to us to decide who is seen and who is missed, which is heartbreaking.”
A nurse at a West Midlands hospital said: “I have not been able to sit with dying patients, meaning they have been left alone to die. I have not had the time to ensure patients are well fed and hydrated. “
A midwife working at a hospital in Yorkshire said: “Completely unsafe care due to unacceptable staffing levels. The standards for what is acceptable care for a service to provide have become so low that the benchmark is survival.”
The RCN research follows on from a recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme, which found that almost 19,000 NHS patients had to wait three days in A&E over a 12-month period.
Dispatches’ investigation focused on the Royal Shrewsbury Hospital and featured harrowing scenes. The RCN said its investigation found “that the scenes in Shrewsbury are commonplace across health and care services”.
Ranger said: “When patients cannot access safe care in the community, their conditions deteriorate and they end up in hospital, where staff shortages are just as severe. This vicious circle fails staff and patients – it cannot continue.
“We urgently need investments in nursing staff, but also to enshrine safety-critical nurse-patient ratios in law. In this way we improve care and prevent patients from being harmed.”
The RCN said the survey covered the whole of Britain but that the “vast majority” of respondents were from England.