LONDON (Reuters), Apr 17 - Student nurses are being left in sole charge of patients during their clinical training because of cost-cutting in the National Health Service (NHS), the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said on Tuesday.
A poll of 1,500 nurses found that nearly half (44%) had been left alone with patients without any warning and without a registered nurse or doctor present.
More than one in six (15%) said they had witnessed adverse events while left unattended.
"This is yet another example of how deficits-driven cost cutting is compromising patient safety," said RCN General Secretary Peter Carter.
Most of the students surveyed (84%) said they had not reported the unsupervised duty.
A third thought the complaint would not be taken seriously and another third were worried it might affect their grades.
But the government said patient safety was of "paramount importance" and that it had recruited 85,000 more nurses since 1997.
"We would expect any nurse, whether in training or in practice, to report any incident they feel has an adverse effect on patient safety," said Health Minister Lord Hunt.
The poll was released as nurses attend the RCN's annual conference in Harrogate.
The RCN says more than 22,300 NHS posts in England had been lost in the past 18 months in a financial squeeze to reduce hospital deficits. The health department says the actual level of compulsory redundancies is much lower, at around 1,500.
The government argues that health services have not suffered as a result of its budget drive, with waiting times at record lows and cancer patients being treated faster.
It is pumping record amounts into the service in England, rising by 9% to more than 93 billion pounds in the current financial year.
Last Updated: 2007-04-17 13:37:58 -0400 (Reuters Health)
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