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It is too late to find the nurses needed to meet the demands of an “extremely challenging” winter, with 40,000 openings in England alone, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned.
The union now asked the government to “be honest” about the risks that understaffing could pose to patient safety.
It comes after NHS England moved its highest alert level deal with COVID-19 cases after the number of coronavirus patients in hospitals increased to more than 11,000.
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The RCN said it has “serious concerns” about how services will be safely staffed in winter, as “it is too late to find nurses to meet the likely demand.”
“The government must be honest about the widespread nursing vacancies and the steps that must be taken to keep patients and staff safe despite a depleted workforce,” the union said.
“When COVID-19 sick leave is also considered, these gaps in the workforce place enormous responsibility on nurses left on the job and intolerable pressure on senior nurse leaders.
“The RCN is deeply concerned that these few employees could ‘burn out’ this winter unless NHS England’s proposed local staffing plans prioritize the safest and highest quality care.”
RCN England Director Mike Adams said the NHS “faces the prospect of an extremely challenging winter” and frontline nurses in hospitals, communities and nursing homes are “under great pressure.”
He said the union has heard that nurses are “increasingly scattered on the ground” in some hospitals.
“The government says that nurses have received additional training to provide more critical care personnel to treat COVID-19 patients, but there is simply not enough for everyone,” Adams added.
“There are around 40,000 nursing vacancies registered on the NHS in England alone.
“It is essential that the learning is applied to planning for this winter, including what service can be safely delivered with the available workforce.”
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Earlier this week, the executive director of NHS England warned of a “dire situation ahead”, saying there were “22 hospitals worth” of COVID-19 patients in hospitals across the country.
Sir Simon Stevens appeared alongside Prime Minister Boris Johnson at a press conference during which he assured skeptics that the second wave of the pandemic “is real and serious.”
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Sir Simon said that around 30,000 employees in the health service were sick with coronavirus or had to isolate themselves, and “that has an impact.”
The government has said that there were 13,500 more nurses working on the NHS in England in the year to April 2020 than in the previous 12 months.
Last year he pledged to hire more than 50,000 nurses by 2025.
