SENIOR nurses claim recruiting more registered nursing staff is the key to solving the current NHS crisis and are urging MPs to sign up to a ‘Manifesto for Safe Staffing.’

Nurse leaders in the Safe Staffing Alliance say part of the reason the health service is struggling is because patients are sicker than ever before yet there are fewer registered nurses (RNs) caring for them.

The Alliance, which includes representatives from the RCN, Unison and the Patients' Association has highlighted research showing that patients suffer harm when nurse patient ratios reach one RN to eight patients. Yet it is often contacted by nurses who are having to care for as many as 14 patients.

“One to eight should not be seen as a minimum but an unsafe level.” said the Alliance chair, Susan Osborne. ‘The healthcare system is in meltdown so our manifesto is a first step towards getting things back on track by focusing on the fundamentals of patient care.

“We know of examples where trusts have invested in more registered nurses which had made the system more efficient by improving patient flow which enabled them to close beds and save money.”

Glenn Turp, regional director of the RCN Northern Region, said: “When the coalition government came into power it made drastic cuts to the funding of nurse education training places which have contributed to the unacceptable shortfall of nurses available today. While the government has recently increased funding, it is still far below the level which it was at when this government came into power.”

Trevor Johnston, Unison regional head of health, said: “The Government need to invest in more staff or risk losing the ones they have due to stress and overwork.”