Patients ‘left to die alone’ as nursing shortage hit UK hospitals – Report

A survey reveals that NHS patients are being left untreated and, in some instances, face solitary deaths due to inadequate staffing of registered nurses during shifts.

In 2023, the government introduced a series of restrictions aimed at curbing migration to the UK, which included a prohibition on accompanying family members for most international students.

However, recent research conducted by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) indicates that only one-third of shifts have sufficient nurses on duty.

According to the report, which questioned more than 11,000 nursing staff across the UK, staffing shortages frequently result in staff members caring for dozens of patients simultaneously.

Nicola Ranger, the acting general secretary and chief executive of the RCN, stated that the survey illustrated how patients were being let down.

“In every health and care setting, nursing staff are fighting a losing battle to keep patients safe,” she said. “Without safety-critical limits on the maximum number of patients they can care for, nurses are being made responsible for dozens at a time, often with complex needs,” the Guardian UK reports.

“It is dangerous to patients and demoralising for nursing staff.”

In addition, 81% of respondents reported insufficient numbers of nurses to adequately ensure patient safety, with a significant number of nurses in accident and emergency settings responsible for caring for more than 51 patients.

A nurse working in the community in south-west England said: “We have days when we have 60 visits unallocated because we don’t have enough staff. ‘We are always rushing.”

Another in the south of England said: “We leave over 50 patients requiring care unseen daily due to poor staffing levels.

“This leads to increases in hospital admissions and death. It is left to us to decide who gets seen and who gets missed, which is heart-breaking.”

The RCN survey comes on the heels of a recent Channel 4 Dispatches programme, revealing that nearly 19,000 NHS patients endured waits of three days or more in A&E over a 12-month span.

Nicola Ranger, the acting general secretary of the RCN, expressed that nurses are “fighting a losing battle to keep patients safe” and characterized current staffing levels as “dangerous to patients and demoralizing for nursing staff.”

“We desperately need urgent investment in the nursing workforce but also to see safety-critical nurse-patient ratios enshrined in law. That is how we improve care and stop patients coming to harm,” she added.

Nigeria

In March, the Nursing and Midwifery Council of Nigeria announced that Nigerian nurses and midwives must possess at least two years of post-qualification work experience from the date of receiving their permanent practicing license before their certificates can be verified by foreign nursing boards or councils.

According to the Nursing Council, about 15,000 nurses left Nigeria last year to take up jobs abroad.

Following the announcement, hundreds of nurses have staged protests at the health regulator’s offices in Abuja and Lagos, demanding the withdrawal of the policy.

Similarly, in March, the federal government imposed a ban on granting leave of absence to health professionals intending to relocate abroad.