Why cutting senior NHS nurses is a potentially catastrophic move
An NHS trust plans to cut senior nurse leader posts in a bid to reduce its costs is a short-termist approach to budget control that could have dangerous consequences, says the editor of Nursing Standard. Nurses in band 8 posts are not mere pen-pushers, but senior clinicians with responsibility for patient safety and historic examples of cuts to senior nursing posts show such decisions can be catastrophic.
NHS trust plans to cut band 8 nurse posts is a short-termist approach to budget control that could have dangerous consequences
Feared loss of 17 senior nurse roles at one NHS trust brings into sharp focus the impact of health service budget cuts.
The organisation’s proposed restructure, which affects band 8 posts, will delete all head of nursing posts, a move billed as ‘bring the shop floor closer to the board’.
It sounds like a populist approach: protect the ‘front-line’ by stripping out higher-paid managers. It is short-termist too, with potentially dangerous repercussions.
‘Part of the plan is to revise the role of matron so the post-holder does not have to be a nurse’
Senior nurse managers are essential to patient safety
These aren’t ‘pen-pusher’ roles but senior clinicians with responsibility for safety and oversight. Part of the plan at the trust, which we’re not naming to protect the identities of the staff we spoke to, is to revise the role of matron so the post-holder does not have to be a nurse. Instead, they can be a Health and Care Professions Council registrant with no nursing background.
Employers are undoubtedly under immense pressure to slash costs as part of a central government-driven target to reduce cost bases by 1% this financial year while boosting productivity and efficiency by 4%. Integrated care boards have a further unenviable task to cut their running costs by 50%.
The NHS has been here before, and it was catastrophic
Nursing leaders and policy commentators are lamenting their sense of dejà vu – the NHS has been here before and the results of staffing cuts – including at a senior level – have in some cases proved catastrophic. Just look at Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust between 2005-09.
The effect of huge financial restraints on the NHS has already forced the government to take action to seek to reverse the farcical situation of newly-graduated nurses with no jobs to go to. Trouble is, its solution – the ‘graduate guarantee’ – sounded good until it emerged it involved stripping out swathes of healthcare support roles.
A band 8 nurse is not a mere luxury to be disposed of when money is tight
Moving pieces around is not a sustainable long-term solution. Senior nurse leadership is pivotal to patient safety and ensuring best healthcare outcomes.
Perhaps it will only be if those senior nurse posts are lost that their true value will be appreciated and the need for their reinstatement will be fully understood.
