NI nursing shortage highlighted

NI said to be "poor relation" in terms of nursing numbers

The number of nurses in Northern Ireland is "significantly behind" the rest of the UK, a leading nursing body has said.

The Royal College of Nursing said numbers had dropped by 6% since 1990 whilst patient numbers in the province had risen.

It said this had resulted in increased pressure on health care staff with a huge impact on morale.

The comments come in the wake of a new report, More Nursing, Working Differently? which gives an overview of the UK nursing labour market.

It revealed that despite the increase in nursing staff resulting from a range of workforce planning and management initiatives, nursing shortages have not been solved.

Martin Bradley of the RCN in Northern Ireland said the province was the "poor relation" to the rest of the UK in terms of nursing shortages.

It is going to take some time before enough students are filtering through to make a difference Martin Bradley Royal College of Nursing

"Since 1990, England has had a 15% increase in nursing staff and Scotland has had a 5% increase while in Northern Ireland the number of nursing staff has actually fallen by 6%," he said.

"This shows that we are lagging behind the rest of the UK considerably in our attempts to tackle the shortage of nurses.

"While there are fewer nurses on the ground, the turnover of patients has risen and the number of beds fallen.

"The result of this has been increased pressure on health care staff which has had a huge impact on morale."

He pointed out that despite a rise in the number of students in recent years there were fewer qualified staff on the ground, indicating that the number of students were not coming through to close the gap.

"Since 1990, there has also been a 40% drop in the number of students registering in Northern Ireland as qualified nurses - from 659 to 393," he said.

"It is going to take some time before enough students are filtering through to make a difference."

Dr Beverley Malone, general secretary of the RCN, said the "severe imbalance" in the rate of growth of the UK nursing labour workforce was putting the future of patient care at risk.

She said it required an urgent co-ordinated action plan by the UK's four health departments to ensure that the UK's nursing workforce continues to grow over the next decade.

She said: "The evidence is that nurses are still struggling to meet the workload and without urgent action from all the health ministers we are heading for a decade where quality patient care is put at risk."