Mouthpiece: Nurses face painful times

THERE has been no escape over the last few months from announcements and speculation about the state of the public sector purse. Well, when it comes to the NHS, cuts are already being made, despite the modest increase in funding health boards have received this financial year.

In a bid to save 31 million, just to break even, NHS Lothian is cutting 734 posts, including 333 in nursing and midwifery. This means that, as a staff group, the nursing workforce is taking the biggest hit, with 45 per cent of post reductions in the health board area applying to nursing and midwifery posts.

In all likelihood, the NHS budget uplift for the next five years or so is simply not going to be enough to cover the increasing health costs the NHS faces. That's why the Royal College of Nursing has launched its Frontline First campaign.

Nurses can now use the campaign website to tell us about cuts that are being made and give us ideas about how money can be saved or services delivered differently, without harming patient care.

One of the measures that NHS Lothian is taking, along with other health boards, is to reduce their wage bill by simply not replacing nurses when they leave. Another tactic is to replace registered nurses with nursing assistants, and another is to redeploy specialist nurses to do ward shifts because of workforce shortages. These may be quick and easy ways for health boards to reduce their costs now, but there is only so long that this unplanned and crude approach to cuts can be taken before the remaining workforce is left overstretched and patient care suffers.

Instead, health boards must find new ways to deliver services more efficiently, for example, by reducing the time patients spend in hospital. In order to protect patient care, the RCN is urging nurses to contact us via www.rcn.org.uk/frontlinefirst.

n Ellen Hudson is associate director of the Royal College of Nursing Scotland