UK | More than 60,000 NHS jobs ‘at risk’

More than 25,000 National Health Service posts have been abolished in the past two years and more than 60,000 further jobs are at risk, according to the Royal College of Nursing.

Government proposals to move care of many patients from acute hospitals to community settings are branded a “facade” by the nurses’ representative body in a survey released before its annual conference in Harrogate this week.

Results of research for the RCN’s Frontline First campaign demonstrate that “community services are also overburdened, underinvested and at risk from cutbacks,” the college said.

Data collected for the survey shows that around 61,000 jobs are at risk of the axe across the NHS, it said.

“Alongside this, the RCN has evidence from official sources showing that 26,327 posts had already gone in the two years to April 2012, demonstrating the weakness of previous pledges to protect the front line,”the report said.

An overwhelming 89 percent of community nurses said their caseload had increased over the last year and 59 percent reported that they were spending less time with their patients than they did a year ago, the survey showed.

via AFP: More than 60,000 NHS jobs ‘at risk’.