MS Nurses.co.uk

The Facts of the MS Nurses Crisis

A quarter of the 200 MS nurses in the UK are facing an uncertain future due to the NHS funding crisis. Threats of redundancy, recruitment freezes and a lack of clarity about the Government’s commitment to their future are destroying morale.

MS nurses can be the single most important person in the health and social care set up for someone with MS, which is a devastating neurological condition. They provide a range of specialist services that is simply not available elsewhere.

MS specialist nursing in crisis

The MS Trust is extremely concerned about the current threat to cut the number of MS specialist nurses. A recent survey carried out by the MS Trust showed that 27% of posts are under financial risk.

Nicola Russell of the MS Trust said: “We are worried that MS may be seen as a soft target for cost-cutting because it has a lower profile than some other diseases. It is outrageous that people with MS, who are already vulnerable, are being penalised for shortfalls within the NHS.”

MS specialist nurses are crucial to the care of people with MS. They play a key role in providing people with MS with information and facilitate self-management and independence.

At diagnosis the MS specialist nurse provides emotional support and sets a level of expectation. The MS specialist nurse works in partnership with the person with MS and their families to ensure effective use of drug therapies and holistic care.

If disability develops, the MS specialist nurse, as a key member of the multi-disciplinary team, enables people to manage their disease at home, thus reducing hospital admissions.

Vicki Gutteridge of the UK MS Specialist Nurse Association said: “Reducing the already limited number of MS specialist nurses will result in postcode access to services.

“If these posts are axed it will also have a knock-on effect on recruitment as people will not want to enter a profession if they see it as temporary and unstable.

“On behalf of the MS nurses I call upon the Government not to erode this service which is already thinly spread,” she said.

In 2001 work by the MS Trust and Royal College of Nursing estimated that 300 MS specialist nurses were needed across the UK. There are now around 200.

“In 1995 there were only three MS specialist nurses and services for people with MS were non existent over much of the country,” said Christine Jones. “We have all worked hard to improve MS services over the last decade and to see them eroded is heartbreaking for people with MS.”

“This is short-term thinking gone crazy. A study in 2002 showed that a MS specialist nurse provides a cost saving of over £64,000 per year in reducing bed days and unplanned admissions,” continued Christine Jones.

Without MS specialist nurses working as part of multi-disciplinary teams in hospital and community settings, there is no chance that the NHS can deliver the recommendations set out in the White Paper Our health, our care, our say: a new direction for community services, the National Service Framework for Long-term Conditions (NSF), and the NICE MS Management Guidelines for people with MS.

Nursing unions and health charities have warned that specialist nurses face cuts in the latest wave of NHS savings.

Some NHS trusts have identified them as a "soft target", they say.

Specialist nurses are senior staff with expertise in diabetes, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy, or a range of other long-term problems.

The warning comes as a BBC survey suggests the overall health service deficit in England is £700m out of a total budget of £76bn.

We're a soft target when savings have to be made Vicky Gutteridge, MS specialist nurse.

The nurses thought to be under threat are mainly community-based and have a central role in the government's policy of encouraging more people to be cared for out of hospital and in the home.

Some are part-funded by charities alongside the NHS, but the Royal College of Nursing says a lot of these posts are being downgraded or closed.

Howard Catton, head of policy at the Royal College of Nursing, said that recent announcements of NHS job cuts across the country show specialist nurses are being targeted.

"Nurses involved in infection control, palliative care, rheumatology disorders or multiple sclerosis - those posts are being identified as at risk of redundancy and removed in order to help hospitals achieve financial balance."

'Very disturbing'

Vicky Gutteridge has been a multiple sclerosis specialist nurse in Wessex Region for three years.

She said her job was rescued recently when the MS Society stepped in with extra funding.

She said that if her role had gone, her patients would have been left stranded - but that is not always appreciated.

"We're a soft target when savings have to be made," she said.

"And for a lot of people neurology has been a Cinderella service, and people with MS have often been Cinderella's within that Cinderella service."

Sharon Haffenden, from the MS Society, which has put £4m into co-funding projects, said it was considering asking the health service for its money back.

'Heart of plans'

"I have to say that we will need soon to look at reclaiming the money from PCTs," she said.

"It's probably going to be too expensive for us to pursue legal action, but this is a lot of money that's been paid out from the charity to the health service over the last three to five years, and to see that under threat in the way that it is now is really very disturbing."

Nicola Russell of the MS Trust said: "We are worried that MS may be seen as a soft target for cost-cutting because it has a lower profile than some other diseases.

"It is outrageous that people with MS, who are already vulnerable, are being penalised for shortfalls within the NHS."

Other charities, including the Parkinson's Disease Society, Macmillan Cancer Relief and the British Society for Rheumatology have also expressed concern.