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JENNI RUSSELL

We’ve pushed our nurses to breaking point

NHS spends millions on agency staff because nursing is an increasingly unrewarding job

The Times

Like many others, I’ve had a recent and alarming encounter with the NHS’s critical shortage of nurses. A relation came out of hospital with a serious condition which required constant monitoring by the hospital team.

Inside, their care had been exemplary. Once outside, and with worrying symptoms, it was as if a steel door had been slammed. No amount of hammering on it made any difference. Every number given for nursing or follow-up advice rang out. Nobody responded to the voice messages we were told to leave. The switchboard said it wasn’t their responsibility to find an actual human being, and put us through to more machines.

It took 11 days of calling, and the intervention of the chief executive’s office, before anyone rang back