Responding to the workforce and patient safety report, which finds temporary nursing staff in the NHS are being discriminated against, including on the basis of ethnicity, RCN Chief Nursing Officer Lynn Woolsey said:
“The findings that temporary nursing staff, including those from ethnic minority backgrounds, are being discriminated against and prevented from raising concerns about patient safety are extremely serious. This requires swift and decisive action from NHS leaders.
“Temporary nursing staff are highly skilled professionals but are often working with colleagues they have not met, in unfamiliar environments, and in settings where there are too few staff. They do an incredibly difficult job and without them services would struggle to function. They deserve support, not abuse or isolation.
“The fact remains that the widespread need for temporary nursing staff is symptomatic of the health service’s workforce crisis. In every care setting, there are too few permanent nursing professionals to keep patients safe, forcing trusts to rely on expensive agency workers.
“This report is further evidence of the need for urgent and sustained investment in the nursing workforce. This means better pay and working conditions to get more staff to take up permanent roles and the introduction of government-funded degrees to boost recruitment into the profession at source.”
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Notes to Editors
Health Services Safety Investigations Body - Workforce and patient safety: temporary staff - integration into healthcare providers
