Labour attacks Tory record as 5,000 nurses lost from NHS over five years

[super jumbe]

The NHS has lost more than 5,000 nurses in just three years, official figures show.

Data for May this year reveals there were 348,311 qualified staff working in nursing, midwifery and health visiting, down 5,601 on the 353,912 in May 2010.

Numbers of midwives, health visitors and school nurses have risen, meaning the drop is attributable to lost nursing posts.

The figure for the total number of staff working in these fields has dropped every year since 2010.

?But these cuts to the NHS frontline show he is ignoring these warnings and allowing hospitals across England to operate without safe staffing levels.

?It is simply unacceptable that, six months on, the Government has failed to take any action on the minimum staffing recommendation in the Francis Report.

http://www.yorkshirepost.co.uk/news/main-topics/general-news/labour-attacks-tory-record-as-5-000-nurses-lost-from-nhs-over-five-years-1-5974528

[GastonJ]

And as per your other post they'll be busy selling their services in India, meanwhile the NHS goes short on staff, and as the services deteriorate the government will draf in private companies at twice the hidden cost

[Snowy79]

Saying 5000 nurses lost makes good political point scoring but what's the true story ?. Has services improved ? Were the 5000 nurses lost not much good anyway. Has more efficient machinery replaced the nurses ? Have hospital services been centralised in newer more efficient hospitals ?

[GastonJ]

Had services improved the government wouldn't have to be bailing out A&E departments, and we wouldn't have all the media coverage of ongoing mistakes in the NHS - though the so called news media always carries horror stories of the NHS even where issues don't exist anyway. I think one of the latest was over food? mostly because it's sold to the NHS as chilled ready meals and warmed up before being given to patients before it turns to mush - private companies providing it y'see, probably on a budget of 3 pence per meal...

Take your pick

Addenbrooke's Hospital 'shackled' to fast food contract

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-cambridgeshire-23896542

Hospital bug victim 'warned ward staff' about hygiene

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-23870393

Stafford Hospital prosecuted over Gillian Astbury death

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-stoke-staffordshire-23882337

Redditch hospital where woman 'died in squalor' says sorry

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hereford-worcester-23870576

Clinicians lead reputation change at Furness General

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-23899933

Boston Pilgrim Hospital's A&E 'in chaos as girl died'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lincolnshire-23910934

NHS debt crisis may close a string of hospitals


http://www.express.co.uk/news/health/419550/NHS-debt-crisis-may-close-a-string-of-hospitals

[Kalipo]

Ha, labour must think we're stupid..

It's their manifestos which effected the nurses over the past 5 years.. the changes the conpeopletives made will only recently start to affect staffing.

DONT TRUST MAINSTREAM POLITICS! THEYRE ALL PISSING IN THE SAME POT!

[ifred]

Had services improved the government wouldn't have to be bailing out A&E departments, and we wouldn't have all the media coverage of ongoing mistakes in the NHS - though the so called news media always carries horror stories of the NHS even where issues don't exist anyway. I think one of the latest was over food? mostly because it's sold to the NHS as chilled ready meals and warmed up before being given to patients before it turns to mush - private companies providing it y'see, probably on a budget of 3 pence per meal...

Take your pick

Addenbrooke's Hospital 'shackled' to fast food contract


BBC News - Addenbrooke's Hospital 'shackled' to fast food contract


Hospital bug victim 'warned ward staff' about hygiene


BBC News - Hospital bug victim 'warned ward staff' about hygiene


Stafford Hospital prosecuted over Gillian Astbury death


BBC News - Stafford Hospital prosecuted over Gillian Astbury death


Redditch hospital where woman 'died in squalor' says sorry


BBC News - Redditch hospital where woman 'died in squalor' says sorry


Clinicians lead reputation change at Furness General


BBC News - Clinicians lead reputation change at Furness General


Boston Pilgrim Hospital's A&E 'in chaos as girl died'


BBC News - Boston Pilgrim Hospital's A&E 'in chaos as girl died'

NHS debt crisis may close a string of hospitals

NHS debt crisis may close a string of hospitals | Health | News | Daily Express

Its obvious with all these problems we need 5000 more Hospital administrators to improve the efficiency
so to pay for them another 10 000 more nurses will have to be sacked

Soon our health service will be unrivalled in the world

[super jumbe]

Do you know there is some thing does not add up, we recruit more nurses from aboard from India and Philippines, Malaysia, etc when our British gradates nurses are out of work, is it because the hospital can get cheaper nurses from abroad or we are out of touch with the way employments works?

[GastonJ]

Its obvious with all these problems we need 5000 more Hospital administrators to improve the efficiency
so to pay for them another 10 000 more nurses will have to be sacked

Soon our health service will be unrivalled in the world

I just wonder how many doctors and nurses can maintain buildings, cook meals, clean hospitals, negotiate contracts for maintenance, negoitae building and supply contracts, would know where/how to purchase xray equiment/MRI scanners etc, know employment law to employ and fire people, are accountants, can deal with legal and H&S legislation and so on forever - which all companies do etc and can doctors and nurses do it in their spare time - before everyone says they're no longer doctors and nurses and are administrators? It's easy for people to assume that the NHS only needs doctors and nurses. Do British Airways only employ aeroplane pilots, rail companies only employ train drivers and garages only employ mechanics (with the exception of MH Motors - who employ none ) ?

Think about it - your appointment at a hospital:

You receive a letter telling you when - did a nurse type it?
It was typed and printed off a computer system - does a nurse maintain it?
You attend the department - did the nurse build it? Does teh nurse maintain it? does the nurse clean it?
The nurse takes your blood and sends it on
Your blood gets ****ysed - will a nurse do that? Again the person that ****yses you blood isn't sat with you, they are sat in a laboratory somewhere - which isn't built, maintained or cleaned etc by a nurse. A nurse was not involved in the choice of that equipment, the purchase, the maintenance and so on, let alone paying the electricity and utility bills
If your test results get mixed up - will the nurses investigate why? will they appear in court and sort out the compensation? did the nurse remember to buy insurance for the hospital? does it cover your 'losss'
You go for a xray - nurses don't do xrays, they don't get involved in buying the equipment or anything like that
...................................
I'll leave you to work out the rest.

[ifred]

Yes but there's no money left to pay someone to wipe your arse
You got nice pics of your insides. the computer orders mrs Patel medicine cos some Pollock pressed the wrong key
the blood tests decides your a horse cos of all the illegals in your blood sample.
you get 15 appointments to see a gynaecologist, not forgetting your under restrains because you told the cleaner they didn't effing clean under your bed.
Just to top it off in a cost cutting exercise the low paid nurse from bongo bongo land when you say "Nurse I need a bowel movement" she thought you need a enema designed for a horse based on your blood report which she administered by mouth-cos the staff nurse told her nil by mouth for mr G .....have a nice day

[Snowy79]

I'd add to the list of problems in the NHS being some of the nurses. I've experienced some seriously bad nursing when my Daughter was younger. She has been on her death bed a few times and the treatment she received from some nurses was attrocious. My partner is aslo in the health serice as a deputy manager and some of the stories she tells me about the nurses she is responsible for supervising is scary. Just last week she had to suspend three nurses for failings which could have cost lives. She's lost count of the things she's stopped in time. Gone are the days when the nurses didi it for the love of the job. Don't get me wrong there are some amazing ones but like teachers, some just see it as a job.

[gmb45]

hmm never come across any "bad" nurses, came across a few docs with serious attitude problems tho, there are more good nurses/docs than bad tho, must remember that as well.

[Snowy79]

Have a look at the Nursing and Midwifery site then check out hearings. It's scary how many are not up to the job. You can be a kiddie fiddler, thief, wife beater etc and a nurse as the majority don't get full disclosure checks unless in certain roles.

[GastonJ]

There are 146,075 doctors, 369,868 qualified nursing staff, and 37,314 managers in the NHS, or were in 2012. The number of nurses alone is more than most English cities - what population of bad apples are there in cities? That's not an excuse or reason tho. They bad apples need to be weeded out.

That's about 1 nurse for about every 150 people in the UK - so it isn't that bad a statistic when looked on like that. However they're employed by different Trusts and you'll find that Trusts try to have a reasonable patient/nurse ratio - but not all the nurses are on wards. There's something in the region of 2,300 hospitals in the UK, so on average and roughly:


64 doctors per hospital
160 nurses
16 managers

Is it really that bad a ratio per hospital? Yes I know some hospitals are larger etc, but at the end of the day it's just MP's playing with the figures. Bearing in mind what I wrote earlier about not having nurses and doctors doing anything other than clinical work then the remainder carry out the management of staff, the buildings themselves etc. Think about your own company, how many of the staff employed in your company (if you are employed) actually are involved in the actual handling of he 'end product'?

[Snowy79]

Not to forget there's also agency nurses. My partner is a deputy manager in a care home and has been in nursing for the best part of 30 years. She's previously been a manager but stepped down as she got fed up with how some homes cut back to save money. Not just Private homes but Council run one's also. She thinks the NHS has gone so far down hill since they did away with the old Ward Sisters. It's very hard now to clamp down on poor nursing and loads get away with serious issues as the Departments don't want to highlight how bad they are.

[chalky 4]

Nurses now need a degree to stand around the ward `workstation` chattingnd playing with their phones. Bring back matron's !