Hospital nurses have been told to double up as cleaners as the NHS staffing crisis deepens.
Specialist nurses at Luton and Dunstable University Hospital were put on notice to help clean wards and dirty utility rooms.
Staff were told in a letter that they could be required to act as cleaners for a whole shift.
Their trust said it had made the request reluctantly during “some of the most challenging circumstances we have ever faced”.
But unions tonight roundly condemned the hospital bosses.
Unison’s deputy head of health Helga Pile said: “Many health workers are throwing in the towel. They feel guilty that the pressures on them mean patients are no longer being cared for properly.
“The cracks in the NHS are deepening. Hospitals and ambulance services simply don’t have enough staff. The staffing crisis is the worst ever experienced. The government must get to grips with it, starting with a rethink on pay.”
Nurses were told they may even have to clean sluices – rooms where human waste is disposed of.
Other jobs could include cleaning high touch points and “general duties” such as answering phones.
Last month it was revealed that the number of NHS workers off sick has rocketed. Teresa Budrey, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “To ask specialist nursing staff to spend a shift cleaning is a terrible use of resources. To suggest this in the middle of a workforce crisis – which is putting patient safety at risk – makes it insulting for both cleaning and nursing staff.”
She said it was an example of “why nurses feel they have no choice but to consider striking”.
Ms Budrey added: “Rather than using specialist nurses for cleaning, the hospital would be better advised to employ more cleaning staff.”
The Bedfordshire Hospitals Foundation Trust said turning specialist nurses into part-time cleaners would only be “considered where every option had been exhausted”.
It added: “As a result of pressures we are currently experiencing, a discussion took place with senior medical, nursing and management leads to consider how we might ensure our ward teams could be given additional help.”
