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survey published by a baby charity reveals that a third of all neonatal units in England are cutting their workforce.
Bliss has published the findings and is calling for the government and NHS trusts to take ‘urgent action’.
It found a total of 140 nursing posts have been cut through redundancies, recruitment freezes or the down banding of posts – despite government promises that frontline services would not be affected by efficiency savings.
Twenty per cent of units said they also expect to have to make further cuts over the next 12 months.
Andy Cole, Bliss chief executive, said: ‘The lives of England’s sickest babies are at risk by needless cuts to the neonatal nursing workforce.
‘The government’s assurances that frontline services would not be affected by changes in the NHS is not true for these most vulnerable patients.
‘The government and NHS must take responsibility now and ensure our tiniest and sickest babies receive the highest standard of care at this critical time in their lives.’
The news comes after Bliss claimed in 2010 that an extra 1150 nurses were needed to meet Department of Health minimum standards.
These were set out in the
NHS Toolkit for High Quality Neonatal Services which states that 70% of the registered workforce should be qualified in specialised neonatal care.
However, Bliss says the survey results show that more than half of units are not meeting this standard and that an estimated 450 nurses need to be trained-up to become qualified in specialised neonatal care.
Anne Milton, the public health minister, said the government wants to ensure the right number of qualified staff in order to provide ‘consistently high-quality neonatal care’.
She continued: ‘Our modernisation plans will cut the costs of administration by one-third over this parliament, and every penny will be reinvested into frontline services.’
