One-third of England's hospitals lack sufficient nurses

Newly revealed data shows that one-third of hospitals in England are lacking at least 10% of the nurses they need. This information comes from a report by Channel 4 News, which took ten months to obtain the NHS data. The issue of nursing shortages has been a concern since the Mid-Staffordshire scandal. At that time, the government promised to address understaffing, which had harmed patient care. For several years, detailed data on nurse staffing levels was available to the public. However, this data was discontinued in 2018, making it hard to track the situation. The problem is even worse in critical care units, where 20% of nursing positions are unfilled in one in five of these areas. In neonatal care wards, the shortage is even more alarming, with one in three wards missing a significant number of nurses.