NHS warns nurses' union of 27,000 job cuts

London: Almost 27,000 NHS posts have been earmarked for cuts, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has said, blaming a "cocktail of instability" arising from the government's attempt to make efficiency savings of £20 billion (Dh118 billion) while radically shaking up the health service.

In a report entitled Frontline First, the nurses' union says the loss of 26,841 staff posts is the equivalent of closing nine hospitals the size of Alder Hey, the specialist children's medical centre in Liverpool.

There is evidence, the report says, that fewer staff are being allotted to deal with the ever-increasing number of patients, many of whom have complex needs. The union says that at the same time it has uncovered 1,200 "ridiculous" reports concerning waste.

Appalling discoveries

At Plymouth the RCN found that televisions switched on automatically each day regardless of whether patients were there to watch. The NHS in Buckinghamshire spent £60,000 on bathrooms that were never used.

The RCN says it is "appalled" that hospitals continue to send patients unnecessary drugs. One elderly patient walked into a hospital with 1,300 pills.

Peter Carter, general secretary of the RCN, said ministers had peddled an "urban myth" that the NHS was to be protected from cuts. Instead they were making dramatic savings while also imposing the biggest shake-up in the health service for 60 years.

"We fear a recipe for serious destabilisation [even] if you did not have the cuts and have the white paper on its own," Carter said.

Carter warned that many foundation trusts were retreating into secrecy to hide the scale of the problem. "We have not included any of the 45 per cent cuts that the secretary of state has called for in management. These posts are health care assistants, nurses, medical staff frontline cuts often done by stealth. It's unacceptable."

Getting a grip

Carter predicted that waiting times for hospital treatment would rise in the coming months unless the health secretary, Andrew Lansley, got "a grip on this as a matter of utmost urgency".

He added: "One of the great successes of the Labour government was [getting] waiting lists down. In 1997 the average wait was 24 months. Last year it was nine weeks. We predict that will rise."

Sir David Nicholson, chief executive of the NHS, questioned the union's figures.

"By the RCN's own admission the accuracy of these figures is not guaranteed and we do not recognise their figure," he said.

He said that the Department of Health had "made it clear that efficiency savings must not impact adversely on patient care, and that every penny saved must be reinvested in support of frontline services and improving quality".