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Where are the nurses for Rishi Sunak's £1bn urgent care plan?

Two-year plan promising more hospital beds and community ‘virtual’ wards must be matched by action on workforce shortages, say health leaders
Nurses checking documents and consulting each other

Two-year plan promising more hospital beds and community ‘virtual’ wards must be matched by action on workforce shortages, government told

Nurses checking documents and consulting each other
Picture: John Houlihan

Plans to boost overstretched emergency services will not work without proper investment in nursing staff, health leaders have warned.

Promises of 5,000 more hospital beds are at the centre of a new £1 billion two-year plan that the government hopes will boost urgent and emergency care, with same-day emergency care units run by nurses open in every hospital with a major emergency department.

The plan also includes expanding urgent care in the community through virtual wards, where patients are cared for at home with the help of digital technology.

Extra beds are only safe when there are enough nurses for the patients in them, says RCN

The Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) said it hopes around 50,000 people a month could eventually be cared for at home to reduce pressure on hospitals.

But health leaders have warned that the plan needs to be matched with action to tackle workforce shortages.

RCN director for England Patricia Marquis said: ‘More hospital beds and more community and social care services are desperately needed to ensure patients get the right care in the right place at the right time.

‘But the real problem is the lack of staff. Extra beds are only safe when there are enough nurses for the patients in them. And because of the workforce crisis, existing services are unsafe.’

NHS Providers says plan will ease strain on urgent and emergency care but is not enough on its own

There are currently more than 47,000 nursing vacancies in the NHS in England, alongside 4,900 registered nurse vacancies in adult social care.

NHS Providers’ interim chief executive Saffron Cordery said the plan will help ease some strain on urgent and emergency care services but is not enough on its own.

‘We desperately need action to tackle the vast workforce shortages, staff exhaustion and burnout, and the inability to free up capacity by discharging medically fit patients in a safe and timely way,’ she added.

The DHSC said it was committed to recruiting and training more staff. It plans to publish an independently verified, long-term workforce plan by spring.

The plan has also faced criticism for a perceived lack on nursing input.

No nursing organisations were listed in the expert contributions that informed the plan, though it stated that nurses and other front-line workers were among the 2,500 people the government collected opinions from.

NHS England has been contacted for comment.


Further information

DHSC (2023) Delivery pan for recovering urgent and emergency care services

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