Nurses fear cuts will cost them their jobs

One in 20 (five per cent) of 8,000 staff surveyed said they thought they would lose their job while a further six per cent expect reduced hours and seven per cent think they will be “downbanded” – when a role is re-evaluated and assessed as being of a lower grade.

The employment poll for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) included more than 6,000 nurses and healthcare assistants working in the NHS.

It found more half of nurses (54 per cent) reporting lower staffing levels for registered nurses over the last year.

Four out of 10 said they were seeing recruitment freezes, with unfilled posts, 19 per cent were seeing job cuts and 13 per cent were witnessing ward or bed closures.

Nurses are also working extra hours, according to the survey, with 57 per cent saying they do so every shift or several times a week. Some 16 per cent work extra time every shift (up from 10 per cent in 2009) and 41 per cent do so several times a week (up from 31 per cent).

More than half of the nurses (52 per cent) said they were now too busy to provide the level of care they would like and 32 per cent said the quality of patient care is going down.

Nurses have previously reported being downbanded but expected to perform the same duties for less pay.

The RCN plans to table an amendment calling for guaranteed safe staffing levels as the Health and Social Care Bill progresses through the House of Lords.

Dr Peter Carter, chief executive the RCN, said: “Nurses are at the heart of all that is good about the NHS and this is yet more evidence that the front line is not being protected.

“We know the Government wants to protect services but nurses are wilting under the strain of longer working hours, taking on the burden on unfilled vacancies and reduced staffing levels.

“All these short-term measures are likely to leave patients with longer waiting times, poor care and a worse NHS.”