 Nurses want a quota set to ensure staffing levels |
Nurses are calling on the Scottish Parliament to legislate on staffing levels in the health service. Figures published by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) show that most members believe the move is the best way to improve patient care and safety.
Holyrood's health committee has also warned that the NHS in Scotland faces a critical staff shortage by 2012.
However, the Scottish Executive defended staff levels and said it has no plans to introduce set ratios.
Nearly 8,000 nurses responded to the RCN study, the largest ever survey of Scottish nurses.
About 5,000 of the nurses rated appropriate nurse-to-patient ratios as the most important factor in improving care.
The RCN said understaffing adversely affected patients and demoralised nurses.
The union said that having more qualified nurses would reduce the level of patient infections and falls, limit errors with medication and reduce the length of stay in hospital.
Launching its campaign, the RCN called on parliament for a new law to ensure that NHS boards would be legally required to introduce the appropriate staffing levels in their areas.
Dougie Lockhart of the RCN said: "The Royal College is looking for a legal framework to protect patients and to protect nurses because I don't feel that is happening.
"I've been in nursing for 38 years not and the situation has got rapidly worse year on year. We can't get core work done.
"Patients' lives are bound to be at risk if you've only got two or three staff on a 30-bedded medical ward on night duty, for example. Nurses should be in a ward where they can deliver care to patients.
"It'll reduce infections, it reduces death. That might sound totally tragic but these sorts of things are why we are here to nurse. Money is not being directed to frontline staff."
Demand rejected
Mr Lockhart said money should be directed towards ensuring proper staffing on the "shop floor".
He added: "We probably have more nurses in Scotland than England, but we have more ill health in Scotland and we have more challenges with geography."
But a Scottish Executive spokesman said: "We have no plans to introduce set staff ratios, as workforce planning is about more than raw numbers.
"You need to look carefully at the range of staff skills and the patient needs at local level before you decide how many nurses are required.
"That's why we will be providing tools and guidelines for local managers to make that evaluation.
"We are committed to building capacity within the NHS and we have the highest number of nursing and midwifery staff per head of population in the UK as well as the highest ever number of nurses in training."
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Patients' lives are bound to be at risk if you've only got two or three staff on a 30-bedded medical ward 
