More than 3,600 nursing jobs have gone in the past two years, with trusts suffering a 2.3 real terms funding cut, a major investigation into the state of the NHS mental health sector has revealed.
The analysis, based on freedom of information requests to the 57 mental health trust in England, found many had slashed beds and staffing levels – despite record demand for services and government pledges to ensure mental health was given the same priority as other sectors.
Data supplied by 52 trusts revealed an average reduction in nursing staff of 6% from 2011-12 to 2013-14, with six trusts reporting reductions of more than 10% (see table below). This represents and overall drop of about 3,642 whole-time equivalent nursing posts.
The findings have fuelled concern mental health services have been seen as an “easy target” by managers struggling to cut costs and implement new rules on safe staffing in the acute sector.
However, mental health trusts said the drop was also down to efforts to move more care into the community and the creation of new types of services employing a wider range of professionals.
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Mental health sector hit by dramatic reduction in nurse posts
Filed under: Mental Health, Uncategorized, mental health, NHS, Nursing
STRENGTH IN NUMBERS 