Ensuring all nurses have access to ‘fully funded’ and ‘effective’ mental health and wellbeing support is among the key calls of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) in its submission to a major investigation into the NHS.
The RCN has this week unveiled its main asks of the review into the ‘state of the NHS’ in England, led by former Labour minister Professor Lord Ara Darzi and commissioned by health secretary Wes Streeting.
RCN general secretary and chief executive Professor Nicola Ranger is part of an ‘expert reference group’ informing the investigation and will be attending key meetings connected to the review.
In a written evidence submission, the RCN said it had focused on ‘a variety of concerns’, including issues in social care, nurse-to-patient ratios, student nursing numbers, mental health support, raising concerns and corridor care.
Among its calls, the college wants to see ‘fully funded, accessible and effective’ mental health and wellbeing support provided by all employers for all nursing staff.
In addition, it said nurses raising concerns about unsafe staffing levels must be given ‘legal protection’.
This comes as a project by Nursing in Practice explored the processes and barriers connected to nurses speaking up about concerns in primary care.
Other asks by the RCN include a ‘long-term aligned approach’ to both the NHS and adult social care, ‘with proper investment in the workforce’.
Financial support must also be given by the UK Government to nursing students – including by ‘fully funding’ tuition fees and providing living cost grants in line with the rising cost of living.
The RCN’s submission also focused on the need to implement ‘professionally and legally enforceable’ nurse-to-patient ratios – which would see ‘a safety-critical’ maximum number of patients per registered nurse in every healthcare setting.
Eradicating corridor care and ensuring job guarantees for all nursing students upon qualifications were also among the RCN’s calls to the review.
Professor Ranger said the nursing workforce was in need of ‘urgent attention’.
‘Demand for health care services is far outstripping nursing supply and the workforce is under intense pressure,’ she added.
‘The increasing normalisation of unsafe and ineffective care being delivered in inappropriate settings is a symptom of this state of crisis and a change of course is vital.’
