TWO-THIRDS of hospital ward nurses are thinking of quitting because understaffing has led to unsafe and undignified levels of care, their union Unison revealed yesterday.

In Unison’s nationwide survey of nurses, 63 per cent said there were not enough staff to make sure all patients got “safe, dignified and compassionate care.” Only 45 per cent said that last year.

Sixty-seven per cent said things were just getting worse and 68 per cent said they had thought about leaving their jobs in the past year.

“Health workers are being run ragged, trying to provide safe, compassionate care to all their patients, but are struggling because there are quite simply too few of them to go around,” said Unison head of health Christina McAnea.“It’s no wonder so many are seriously considering leaving the NHS.”

Nurses condemned ministers’ decision to stop work on short-staffing by the National Institute for Clinical Excellence, believing it would just make matters worse on the wards.

“Increasing demands on the NHS show no sign of letting up and, despite all ministers’ talk of protecting the NHS, the desperate situation painted here by health professionals across the UK looks set to continue,” said Ms McAnea. “It doesn’t have to be this way. Instead of starving the NHS of cash and picking fights with health professionals, ministers should be introducing minimum nurse-to-patient ratios.This would not only relieve the pressure on the NHS’s already overworked and overstressed workforce, but would significantly improve the quality of patients’ hospital experiences too.”