NHS: London Worst for Mental Health Shortage

The shortage of nurses has reached a drastic stage across the NHS but the “pointy end” of the crisis is in mental health services in London.

Mental health care services have the worst vacancy rates in the NHS, with a shortfall of almost 10,000 nurses, and that sector’s most extreme shortage is in London.

Analysis by the nurses union, the Royal College of Nursing, has shown that a staggering 25.5% of mental health nurses jobs in the capital are unfilled.

The RCN says the shortage may have a lot to do with the fact that London is the most expensive part of the country to live, and after seven years of wage restraint the prospect of taking on the pressures of mental health work on a wage that has lagged 14% behind inflation since 2010 is particularly unappealing in the high-cost capital.

The next highest vacancy rate for mental health jobs is in the southeast (17.4%) while 9.5% of such jobs are unfilled in the northwest and 8.1% in the northeast.

The college released the figures just days after Prime Minister Theresa May launched what she said would be an “urgent review” of mental health services. Mental health professionals are sceptical about the “urgency” involved because of the lengthy time it takes to filter new recruits into the over-stretched mental health sector.

Full training for mental health nurses takes five years, and with the recruitment of such nurses from abroad plummeting since the Brexit referendum to the lowest level in decades the problems of staff shortages will not be alleviated anytime soon.

There are fears that the growing level of violence against mental health workers will make the already dire staffing situation even worse, with 40% of all NHS mental health workers reporting they had been abused or attacked by a patient in the past year.

Wendy Burn, president of the Royal College of Psychiatrists said the figures about attacks on mental health staff – which included kicking, punching and head-butting – were “truly shocking” and such incidents appeared to be exacerbated by staff shortages leaving services overstretched and less safe.

“We are aware that services are under huge pressure and that patients are not getting the help they need quickly enough,” she said. “It is essential that we expand the workforce with properly trained staff so that care can be provided that is safe for everyone.”

Failing the Vulnerable

Whistleblowers have claimed that staff shortages have led to serious delays in the release of patients who have been detained under the Mental Health Act, resulting in some patients becoming frustrated and violent.

According to RCN figures, the number of patients being sanctioned has increased by nearly a third in the past five years to an average of 175 a day. One of the areas to be examined by the PM’s newly announced review is the rising rate of detention.

Janet Davies, the general secretary of the RCN said the “chronic shortage of nurses” meant the most vulnerable patients were being failed and that a postcode lottery is deepening because of the extreme shortages in areas such as London.. “Overstretched nurses cannot cope with greater numbers of people who, at times, can become aggressive or violent,” she said. “When an individual is detained, the NHS has a duty to keep them safe. But the government presided over a collapse in nurse levels at the same time detention rates soared.”

A report into the attacks on mental health nurses found that a third of all nursing staff surveyed believed violent incidents had become common over the past 12 months and 87% blamed staff shortages.

Sara Gorton, the head of the health sector at the Unison union, said the link to staff shortages was obvious. “Severe staff shortages mean fewer mental health nurses to deal with a rising numbers of user with complex needs,” she said. “As a result, many staff are having to work alone, making violent attacks more likely.”

“Struggling to Cope”, a study of the well-being of mental health staff carried out by Unison, concluded that the violence and staff shortages were fuelling each other.

”Given the recruiting and retention problems within mental health and the wider NHS, this is something that must be addressed urgently if the health service is to hold on to knowledgeable, well-trained staff and encourage new recruits,” the report warned.

 

by Bob Graham

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