The cynics motto “they would say that wouldn’t they” might be applied to a report from the Royal College of Nursing which suggests we need more nurses.
But we should listen when more than 3,000 of Scotland’s 30,000 frontline nursing staff voice concerns about shifts regularly falling short of the expected levels of staffing, compromising care.
Some of the claims can be corroborated elsewhere. Shortages are not just in hospital wards and teams but in those providing support to patients in their own homes as well. A crisis in the levels of nursing support to care homes has also been building, with lower rates of pay and more individual responsibility often making such posts unattractive.
The RCN says many nurses are quitting the profession, demoralised by conditions which they feel make it harder to provide safe, effective, high quality care.
Such concerns cannot be simply ignored. The survey’s claim that patient safety is being routinely compromised should not be taken at face value but neither should it be dismissed. The RCN is calling for an urgent safety review and a legal guarantee that staffing will be maintained at a minimum level.
Health secretary Shona Robison should heed these concerns and needs to address the worrying findings which show at best just how dangerously low morale is in Scotland’s NHS and at worst how dangerous care might be.
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