NHS Cuts

Half of planned NHS job cuts will fall on clinical staff putting patient care under severe strain, a nursing leader has warned

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Dr Peter Carter, chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), said it was a "myth" the Government was protecting the frontline against cuts.

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Evidence shows some hospitals are axing hundreds of nurses, while others are downgrading nursing jobs by using less-qualified healthcare assistants instead.

The union has identified almost 40,000 NHS posts across the UK that face being lost - up from the 27,000 it reported in November.

Come on...

The RCN has said it expects patients to suffer as services such as family nurse partnerships and talking therapies for depression are closed.

Bazinga! If you read this far in the reprinted PR release, you find the real facts rather than the headline scare. Vague "axing hundreds of nurses" becomes concrete as a couple of services. And the best they can find are "family nurse partnerships and "talking therapies for depression". Not cancer or heart attacks.

What's a "family nurse partnership". From the DoH website:

The FNP is a preventive programme for young first time mothers. It offers intensive and structured home visiting, delivered by specially trained nurses (Family Nurses), from early pregnancy until the child is two."

FNP is often delivered through Sure Start Children’s Centres in many areas

Sounds close to five-a-day co-ordination to me. Yes, I think we'll do without that, thank you.