RCN calls for immediate action on NHS understaffing

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has published a report that demonstrates the scale of the understaffing problem affecting the NHS.

More than 8,000 RCN members responded to a survey by the organisation in which almost 90 percent said staffing levels were not always adequate to provide safe patient care – while just under one-third suggested staff provision levels are rarely or never safe.

In some cases, this problem is occurring on more or less a daily basis, leading 91 percent of RCN members to say they would support the introduction of mandatory safe staffing levels.

This was a key recommendation of the recent Francis report into the high-profile failures at the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust – but 71 percent of RCN survey respondents fear the government will not deliver on this target.

RCN chief executive and general secretary Dr Peter Carter said: "Understaffing is the single biggest challenge facing the NHS today. The introduction of mandatory safe staffing levels, enshrined in law, is now a matter of extreme urgency."

This week, the organisation also called for more to be done to help British nurses feel more confident in raising concerns about service quality without fear of victimisation.