The chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing says there is a "massive" shortage of nurses, adding that patients being left in corridors "does nothing to build the morale of our already hardworking workforce". Professor Nicola Ranger adds that the government's social care review is welcome, but that "we haven't got three years to wait for things to get better", after it was revealed that its final report is not expected until 2028. Report by Brooksl. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn
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00:00Patient experience is at the lowest it's ever been, so we know people are concerned about performance of the NHS.
00:07I think our only concern at the Royal College of Nursing is that
00:12we're not sure that the workforce is being given quite enough focus at this moment in time.
00:19Because actually you've still got to have people to treat patients and look after them.
00:26And their biggest challenge for that, with the largest workforce, is nursing.
00:30And I think we would say we're probably the most challenged with regard to recruitment, retention and general morale.
00:38We've got 30,000 nursing vacancies in England alone and
00:44131,000 vacancies in social care. We absolutely agree with what the government is trying to do.
00:51Shift from acute care or
00:53hospital care to community.
00:56And absolutely right.
00:57But we've still got to have people to look after
01:00patients in their own home or in a nursing home or wherever they need to be. And there are still massive
01:07workforce shortages,
01:09particularly for nursing. The real tragedy is of those that do go on to be registered nurses,
01:14one in eight leave within five years. And
01:18particularly at this time of year, during the winter, where there's been huge challenges.
01:24Patients in corridors, patients in inappropriate settings. All of that does nothing to build the morale of
01:32already really hard-working
01:35workforce. And the worst thing about that for nurses is that many of them end up not being proud of the care that they are giving.
01:43So whilst we absolutely applaud that this government is trying to do the right thing,
01:47we really do need to take the worst workforce and particularly nurses with them.
01:53We absolutely do welcome that this is being reviewed again.
01:57And we're delighted with the chair of this review because we know she is someone that will absolutely deliver action.
02:04The real concern is what if we haven't got three years to wait for things to get better.
02:11Because at the moment there is up to, in many hospitals, up to a third of patients that don't actually need to be there.
02:18That's not good for patients. And that's not good for anyone. Nursing is the lifeblood of the NHS.
02:25And we are in crisis.
02:27We're not able to recruit and retain brilliant staff in the way we want to. And what we would urge them to do is
02:34in everything they want to do,
02:37nursing is a huge part of that solution.
02:39Do something bespoke for us to show that we matter because we are essential for any reform they need to do.