Nurses: NHS Heading For Crisis Point

Nursing leaders have warned the NHS is heading for "crisis point" due to "severely affected" staffing levels.

Data collected from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) found that 56,058 jobs have been already axed or face the cut across the UK.

This is up from just 27,000 in April, the college said.

The figures include redundancies that have already been announced or are in the pipeline, and jobs that have not been filled once people live or retire.

However, some NHS Trusts have disputed the validity of the data.

The information was collected from NHS trusts, including analysis of board meeting papers, forward planning, annual and strategy documents.

The RCN found that in England alone, 48,029 NHS posts are set to be cut or have been lost, up on the 30,873 seven months ago.

On top of job losses, the RCN warned of posts being downgraded - where jobs are re-classified by NHS trusts to save money.

Staff can be expected to perform the same duties for less pay or less skilled workers are brought in.

Last month, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley told MPs he was not aware of any jobs in the NHS being downgraded in this way.

On average, across the 41 trusts, 8.3% of qualified nursing jobs will be lost, according to the figures.

In the worst cases, some trusts are cutting up to a quarter of their workforce.

RCN chief executive Dr Peter Carter said: "These figures reveal the deeply worrying acceleration in NHS post losses in recent months.

"It is only 18 months ago that we were concerned about losing around 5,000 NHS jobs. Now it is more than 10 times that figure.

"Cutting staff numbers by up to a quarter and axing a third of nursing posts will undoubtedly have a deep and potentially dangerous impact on patient care.

"There is clear evidence that the quality of care and patient safety is improved when you have the right numbers and skills in place on wards."

In response, a spokesman for Central Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust said they simply do not "recognise the figures quoted about our organisation".

Another, from Kingston Hospital NHS Trust, said there was only a plan regarding job losses for the next two years.

"These figures are incorrect; we now have a detailed two-year plan, which shows a reduction of approximately 200 posts over the next two years, including corporate and back office staff.

"However, we expect these to be absorbed as part of natural staff turnover, as on average, we see between 300 and 400 staff leave the trust each year."