£145 Million NHS Winter Pressure Funding & A&E Nurses

The government has announced it is allocating an additional £ 145 million pounds to inject into the NHS some of which will be allocated to the struggling Accident and Emergency departments across the UK. A portion of the money will be used to upgrade A & E departments, A&E nurses as well as providing an additional 900 beds.

It has been reported the University Hospital of North Midlands will receive £8.8 million which will go towards two new wards. East Kent Hospital University NHS Foundation Trust will get £6.4 million to increase the A&E capacity at the William Harvey and Queen Elizabeth hospitals and the Queen Mother Hospitals. Lancashire Teaching Hospitals will receive money to upgrade emergency day care and redesign the ambulance handover.

Matt Hancock the minister for health has stated “Staff put in a huge amount of work preparing our health service for the challenge of treating more patients over winter and it’s right that we make sure they have the resources they need so people receive the care they deserve. That’s why I will be providing an additional £145m now to upgrade wards, redevelop A&Es and further improve emergency care in time for winter.”

Niall Dickson, chief executive of the NHS Confederation, said the funding would “make a difference” and was an “acknowledgement of the intolerable strain faced by too many patients and staff last winter”.

Nursing Personnel Predict a Very Challenging Winter

Nursing Personnel are predicting this winter is going to be the most challenging on record and the most demanding for hospitals and A&E nurses. One of the main factors is the shortage of nurses available across the UK. Mr Richard Drax South Dorset MP stated in the commons recently “ England is facing a desperate shortage of nurses” He has stated the RCN has calculated there are 40,000 vacancies for nurses across the UK. He has also stated “At the same time, he said, nurses were leaving the profession due to “relentless pressures” and feeling that their “professional registrations were at risk because they were struggling to cope with demand”.

Nursing Agencies Support Role

Nursing agencies will also play an important part in assisting and supporting the NHS through these difficult months. Nursing agencies supply NHS hospitals with nurses across all specialities including A&E nurses. Other factors that have made it challenging include the recent price caps brought in by NHSI reducing the amount agencies can pay agency nurses. This is also coupled with IR35 rules restricting contractors working through their personal service companies. In many cases nurses often have to travel long distances to cover shifts at short notice and pay for accommodation. Where a nurse is deemed inside IR35 they can no longer claim these expenses travel and accommodation expenses making it not worth their while travelling to cover the shift.

£1,000 Nursing Agency Registration Bonus

To assist the NHS through these challenging times Nursing Personnel are recruiting nurses nationwide. As an incentive to work through Nursing Personnel we are offering nurses a £ 1,000 (terms apply) registration bonus to work with Nursing Personnel. Nursing Personnel are a NHS approved NHS framework agency and are working with many Trusts across the UK to bring down the cost of expensive off framework agencies.

For more information call us on 033 3043 6779 or to register click here.