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Pharmacies are in “crisis” and there will not enough nurses to fulfil Labour’s plans to turn the NHS into a “neighbourhood health service”, health leaders have said.
The warning comes as Wes Streeting is to launch a major consultation next week to help shape the Government’s 10-year plan for the health service, inviting patients and NHS staff to contribute to the “national conversation”.
Labour pledged while in Opposition to build “an NHS fit for the future”, with a greater emphasis on preventing ill-health, shifting care from hospitals to community and harnessing the latest technology to improve care.
Some of Labour’s plans have already been outlined, including the creation of neighbourhood health centres to enable people to see GPs, nurses, care workers and other medical professionals in the same building, closer than their nearest hospital.
However, despite welcoming plans to shift treatment from hospitals to communities, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) general secretary Professor Nicola Ranger has warned the NHS “simply does not have the nursing numbers to deliver it”.
She said: “Without new investment, the number of community nurses will stay on track to be half what it was two decades ago.
“Nursing staff are ready to help deliver the modernisation our health service needs, but staff are overworked and chronically undervalued.”
