Nurses Spell Out Their NHS Spending Priorities

Nurses believe the biggest priority for tackling nurse shortages is for services to have the right number and type of nurses, health care assistants and other staff, according to a MORI poll for the Royal College of Nursing, published on the eve of RCN Congress 2000.

The right staffing levels was cited around nine in ten nurses as being critical or very important to tackling shortages - with half of all nurses saying it was critical. This is followed closely by well-funded and supported professional development (89 per cent) and employee-friendly employment policies (88 per cent). Improved pay is seen as being critical or very important by three quarters of nurses but only a third say it is critical - placing it fourth, not first. on the list of issues which are critical to nurses.

In terms of patient services, nurses say the biggest priorities for increased investment are improving access to care and improving primary care - with two in five citing each as first or second priority. Hospital services, community care and long-term care are viewed by fewer nurses as an overall priority (34%, 30% and 23% respectively).

At a subsequent question about nurses' priorities within different areas of patient care, increasing medical and surgical staff, widening access to specialist clinics in community-setting for people with chronic illnesses, increasing the number of rapid response teams to care for acutely ill people in their own homes rather than hospital, and improving intermediate care (e.g. convalescent and rehabilitation services such as those provided in community hospitals) are all viewed as some of the most important initiatives.

Over 1,200 nurses gave their views on how extra money for the NHS would be best spent to improve patient care - [anticipating] the Chancellor's Budget announcement of an extra 1632 billion for the health service next year followed by a further three years of over six per cent real growth.

RCN General Secretary Christine Hancock said: "The survey shows that nurses' biggest frustration is not being able to provide the high quality care that patients need due to staff shortages. It's also clear that nurses are hungry for the development and support to make the most of new opportunities - we already know that while almost a third of nurses are spending more than 100 hours a year on continuing professional development only around two fifths of NHS nurses are given time off to study."

"Nurses' responses to investment priorities in services again reflect the frustrations they feel on behalf of patients. The good news is that the money we asked them to imagine was available for the survey really is there now. Also, many of their concerns are reflected in recent health initiatives, such as the development of new primary care schemes and local commissioning, and the national beds inquiry consultation. But the challenge is to ensure investment in the NHS really does help tackle long-term problems at the same time as producing some immediate improvements for patients and staff on the frontline."

Technical details

Eve of Congress poll - a survey among RCN members. MORI carried out 1,277 'in-home' telephone interviews among a representative sample of RCN members aged 18+, throughout the UK, between 22 February and 2 March 2000. In order to ensure that the sample reflects RCN membership, interlocking quotas were set for nursing sector (acute, practice and community) within nation/region (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland). Data have been weighted to reflect the UK.