There’s nothing like ‘the bottom line’ to cut through the
cr@p – these are the figures for the number of nurses employed by the NHS this
May (2013) as reported in ‘The Independent’, although it’s actually a Press Association
article in all the papers.
The significance of the three years is that this is the
period of our coalition government, the numbers of nurses were rising before;
“The NHS
has lost more than 5,000 nurses in just three years, official figures show.
Data for May this year reveals that there were 348,311 qualified staff working
in nursing, midwifery and health visiting, down 5,601 on the figure of 353,912
in May 2010.
The numbers
of midwives, health visitors and school nurses have risen over the period,
meaning the drop is attributable to lost nursing posts. There were 307,634
nurses, midwives and health visitors working the equivalent of full time in
May, down on the 310,793 in May 2010. The number of doctors working in the NHS
has risen slightly, as has the number of ambulance staff.
The data
was released by the Health and Social Care Information Centre. Shadow health
secretary Andy Burnham said: “Report after report has warned David Cameron of
the central importance of nurse numbers in providing safe care. But these
cuts... show he is ignoring these warnings and allowing hospitals across
England to operate without safe staffing levels.”
Health
Minister Norman Lamb said: “Hospitals themselves must decide how many and which
staff they employ and must publish evidence to show that numbers are right for
the needs of the patients that they look after.”
Why are nurses important?
Because if there aren’t enough nurses you have to close beds
and wards.
If there aren’t enough beds, then the patients who are held
up waiting in Accident and Emergency can’t be operated on in time because there
isn’t a bed for them to be taken to.
Neil Harris
(a don’t stop till you drop production)
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