NURSES leaders have dismissed government assurances that unprecedented pressures on the NHS are “sustainable,” warning of “disaster looming” this winter.

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), representing 430,000 nurses, says that a “perfect storm of pressures” risks engulfing both the NHS and the social care sector “in the coming months.”

In a report, published today, the union warns that record emergency waiting times and shortages of nurses are among factors which clearly represent “symptoms of an unsustainable system” and that the problem pre-dates the Covid-19 pandemic.

The report paints a picture of a health system in crisis after years of underfunding, staff shortages, the debilitating effects of the Covid-19 pandemic and finally the approach of a winter surge in hospital admissions.

The RCN said that “trolley waits” are up ninefold since October, 2019, reaching a leve that it warned “is fundamentally unsafe and must not be normalised.”

According to the report, the NHS is short of 38,000 nurses, levels of nurse sickness are rocketing and the numbers of school and district nurses have plummeted by 30 per cent and 44 per cent respectively since 2009.

It highlighted “high levels of exhaustion and burnout” among nurses  and called for government ministers to be made accountable in law for the health and welfare of NHS staff, as well as delivery of effective services.

RCN director for England Patricia Marquis said: “Speak to any nurse and they will tell you just how concerned they are for their patients as well as their colleagues.

“They have known for a long time just how the pressures have been growing and they can see the risk to patient care every single day in every part of health and care.

“This was coming long before the pandemic and is a direct consequence of a long-term failure to invest in the nursing workforce.”

Ms Marquis said that increased investment “starts by delivering a pay rise that recognises their skill and professionalism to prevents an exodus of experienced nurses and in the long term there must be a legal responsibility at ministerial level for delivering staffing for safe and effective health and care services.”

The Department of Health and Social Care claimed that the government was “on track” to provide an additional 50,000 nurses, extra money and “more efficient, innovative ways of working” during the course of this Parliament.