Health Minister Simon Burns has rejected part of a new report by the Royal College of Nursing which says frontline staff, including community nurses, are under threat because of cuts. He says emergency admissions to hospitals over the last year have gone down for the first time in years.
The Union says cuts and under investment risked a 'revolving door' for patients who are discharged from hospital, only to find no support in the community. They then have to be admitted to hospital again.
– Dr Peter Carter, RCN General SecretaryWe are now seeing a clear and worrying picture of a health service that is struggling. It is struggling to keep people out of hospital because of pressures on the community, and it is struggling to discharge them with support when they leave. Very soon patients will be left with nowhere to turn.''
More than 60,000 frontline jobs in the NHS, including those of nurses, are at risk of being axed because of spending cuts, with almost half already gone, according to "stark" figures in a new study by the Royal College of Nursing.
The Royal College of Nursing said community nurses were among those facing cuts, which meant that government plans to move care from acute hospitals to community sites were a "facade."
The head of the Royal College of Nursing (RNC) has said that the Budget is a mixed picture, although he said that the impact of nurses would be largely negative.
– Dr Peter Carter, Chief Executive, RCNThis budget paints a mixed picture for the health of the nation. On the one hand we welcome measures including a rise in tax on cigarettes. However, the government has indicated that it plans to make dramatic cuts to welfare payments. We know that when people fall on hard times demand for healthcare rises. With the NHS in England struggling to save £20billion and amidst a time of massive restructuring, now is the time to investin our health service.
