North East nurses warn cuts are putting health at risk

There are warnings that funding cuts are putting public health at risk in the North East.

Published 20th Jun 2016

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) is warning that aggressive funding cuts are risking health in this region.

A survey of over 10,000 nurses and health care assistants revealed profound public health challenges are on the rise.

With 43% of those questioned saying their work is affected by heightened pressure on public health services, the RCN is concerned that vital preventative work in the community is being cut back at a time when longstanding public health issues are worsening.

Just over half of those questioned in our region believed that the proportion of patients who need care for preventable conditions has increased during the course of their career.

One nurse said:

“The elderly are becoming more socially isolated due to financial constraints from the Government which impacts greatly on their physical and mental health.

Another said:

“I work with the homeless and drug and alcohol abusers, and have seen their lives become more difficult due to lack of resources and services being pulled due to lack of funding.”

40% of respondents have seen patients whose health is affected by malnutrition or food poverty, 40% have seen patients with health affected by inadequate or unsafe housing, while 23% have seen patients affected by a lack of heating.

Glenn Turp, Regional Director for the RCN Northern region, said:

“There is a widening divide here between people who are living long and healthy lives and those who are struggling due to poor housing or poverty. We cannot and must not tolerate this level of inequality.

“When the Government announced £200m of cuts from public health budgets last year we discovered that more than 7% (£14 million) of these cuts were to be made in the North East and Cumbria.

“As a result we have already seen services such as school nursing, family health, addiction and smoking cessation projects being hit.

“My worry now is that efforts to tackle these issues and to help people live healthier lives are in danger of going backwards because of aggressive cuts to funding and services in this region.”