Community Nurses

(asked on 24th July 2018) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask Her Majesty's Government what measures they are taking to address the impact of the reduction in the number of district nurses in England from 7,700 in 2010 to 4,400 in 2018, as reported by NHS Digital.


Answered by
Lord O'Shaughnessy Portrait
Lord O'Shaughnessy
This question was answered on 26th July 2018

Community health services play a crucial role in keeping people living healthier for longer through proactively managing health in a setting where patients feel most comfortable. Having the right workforce is fundamental to ensure this can happen and the Government acknowledges the challenge of meeting increased demand for care from community nurses.

NHS Digital’s data, which is drawn from the Electronic Staff Record, shows a drop in the number of full-time equivalent district nurses across the National Health Service. However, because of changes, made in 2009, to the way that community health services are commissioned – i.e. to a range of different types of provider – this does not represent the full picture and there will be many district nurses providing NHS funded services in organisations that do not provide a return to the Electronic Staff Record.

However, we are not complacent, which is why we are increasing the supply of registered nurses to meet the growth in demand and have announced additional clinical placement funding that will enable around 5,000 more nursing students to enter training each year from September 2018. This is a historic increase.

We are committed to developing and supporting the wellbeing of the whole community workforce to deliver safe, quality patient-centred care. Health Education England is currently considering how to further support the community nursing workforce.

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