Staffing crisis an ‘existential threat’ to the NHS, nurses warn

The health service has historically been a source of pride for the majority of people in the UK, and a Nursing Times survey carried out in June found that nurses continue to feel proud of the NHS and its promise of free healthcare for all at the point of delivery.

Nurses who responded to the survey described the NHS as “a precious institution” and a “national treasure”. But many nurses also feared that the NHS may not reach its 100th birthday.

This echoes the fears and concerns expressed by nurses who spoke to Nursing Times reporters from the picket lines earlier this year, when they were on strike seeking decent pay to stem the tide of nurses leaving the service because of stress and burnout due to impossibly heavy workloads.

Evan Keir, a quality support manager at NHS Dumfries and Galloway in Scotland and a staff safety representative and steward at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), agreed with this assessment.“I think it is an existential threat because the staffing crisis creates a general dysfunction in the healthcare system which can be used as rationalisation for dismantling and privatisation” he explained.

Rachel Ambrose is a mental health nurse, lecturer at Oxford Brookes University and a member of Nurses United – an organisation that is campaigning for better working conditions for nurses, and to protect the future of the NHS. “It’s very scary when people feel like that’s the only option because they don’t want to end up with the ridiculous shifts that you can’t manage around family life, and they think agency is the way to go” Ms Ambrose said.