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Nursing workforce investment needed to tackle emergency care
The RCN demands more detail on how the staff needed to make new urgent and emergency care plans work will be supported
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The Westminster government must recognise that plans to tackle emergency care in England will require investment in nursing staff to deliver them, the RCN has said.
The comments were made in response to the publication of the in England on 6 June.
Nearly £450 million will be invested to expand urgent and emergency care facilities in England, according to the Westminster government. It says this will help provide faster care for patients, with more people set to receive urgent treatment in their community.
RCN General Secretary and Chief Executive Professor Nicola Ranger said: “This is a plan high in ambition, but low on detail of how the nursing staff needed to make this work will be supported to deliver these changes. Investment in new treatment and assessment centres, reducing the need for admission to hospital and speeding up discharge are desperately needed, but none of this can be achieved unless there is a commitment to invest in an overworked and understaffed nursing workforce.
“Those in government must recognise that their plans will also require investment in the nursing staff to deliver them. Failure to act will simply be adding even greater pressures to a profession that is already on the brink and the plans will fail before they have even begun.”
The RCN says the plan is a welcome admission from government that corridor care is unacceptable and an indication that nursing voices have been heard.
In January, an RCN report revealed harrowing testimony from thousands of nursing staff, showing how widespread the issue is across the UK.
Nicola added: “The commitment in England to publish data on long waits and the prevalence of corridor care is the right thing to do. We now need to see investment put where it is needed most to relieve pressures and end corridor care across the NHS.”
Other commitments made in the plan include delivery of around 40 new same-day emergency care and urgent treatment centres, extra mental health crisis assessment centres and almost 500 new ambulances to be rolled out across England by March 2026.
