A realistic plan to address the nursing crisis is again missing.
A plan to address the current nursing shortage is once again missing from the Health Secretary’s list of “key priorities”.
Secretary of State for Health and Social Care Steve Barclay will today lay out his plans for the NHS ahead of what is expected to be the worst winter on record for the health service.
Addressing the NHS Providers conference in Liverpool, Steve Barclay will say he will focus “on the areas that matter most to the patient experience” and measures which make it “as easy as possible” for frontline NHS and care workers to do their jobs.
Notably, a realistic plan to address the nursing crisis is once again missing.
Five priorities.
Mr Barclay will outline his five key priorities for the months ahead; support for the workforce including more 999 and 111 staff, recovery plans across electives, urgent and emergency care, tackling delayed hospital discharges, improving access to primary care and the New Hospital Programme.
He will say: “We face the twin threats of Covid and flu, external pressures around energy and cost of living, and we enter the colder months without the breathing space that we might have usually had due to covid pressures over the summer.
“So there is a huge amount to do to steer health and care through this storm and crucially, make the changes that will better prepare us for the storms to come.
Adding, “My focus will be on the areas that matter most to the patient experience.
NHS unions are currently voting on if to take strike action following a decade of real-terms pay cuts and the largest workforce deficit in history.
Staffing shortages.
Responding to the news, Royal College of Nursing General Secretary and Chief Executive, Pat Cullen, said: “The storm engulfing the NHS is one of staffing shortages. Soaring numbers of people quitting and unfilled jobs is because staff are neither valued nor treated fairly.
“Paying nursing staff fairly is part of his solution to that problem. They have seen their wages drop by 20%. Our members have voted for strike action because of the impact the crisis is having on patient safety. None of us can afford to go on like this.
“The Chancellor must use tomorrow’s (Thursday’s) statement wisely to invest in the NHS, patient care and those who give it.”
