Nurses will be trained to perform surgical procedures under a radical NHS drive to slash waiting times.
They will be urged to take a two-year course to become ‘surgical care practitioners’ and help ease the workload of under-pressure surgeons.
But critics say the plan is a ‘sticking plaster solution’ to a ‘very serious staffing crisis’, and it will only intensify existing nursing shortages.
Nurses will be trained to perform surgical procedures under a radical NHS drive to slash waiting times (stock image)
Under the proposal, the qualified nurses will be responsible for procedures including the removal of hernias, benign cysts and some skin cancers.
They will also undertake key tasks during major surgery including heart bypasses and hip and knee replacements.
The plans are expected to be laid out in the NHS’s People Plan next month.
This will set out how the health service needs to transform its working practices to keep pace with the demands of a growing and ageing population.
Medical leaders say they have ‘very little anxiety’ about the plans, but patients may be alarmed at the thought of their operations being performed by non-surgeons.
Surgical care practitioners will have done five years’ training – a three-year degree as a nurse or another healthcare professional, followed by a two-year masters course.
Surgeons have up to 16 years’ training including six years at medical school and ten years learning specialist surgical skills.
Latest NHS figures show that 43,600 nursing posts – or 12 per cent – are vacant, at a time when demand for good nursing care has never been higher.
NHS waiting times are at their worst in 13 years, with 4.4 million patients languishing on lists, some of whom have been there more than a year.
The plans are expected to be laid out in the NHS’s People Plan next month despite objections from critics (stock image)
The delays have intensified over the past year with up to 70 per cent of surgeons cutting back on their hours to avoid punitive pension taxes imposed by the Treasury.
There are currently about 800 surgical care practitioners working in hospitals. Leading surgeons say there would need to be ‘thousands’ more to make a real difference, although other sources suggest it will initially be in the ‘hundreds’.
Lib Dem health spokesman Munira Wilson said: ‘This is a sticking plaster solution to very serious staffing crisis across our NHS workforce.’
Caroline Abrahams, of Age UK, added: ‘Anything that helps older people to get the surgery they need more speedily has to be worth trying, providing the arrangements are proven to be safe and have the appropriate clinical oversight.’
Professor Michael Griffin, president of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, said: ‘We are totally supportive of this. We have very little anxiety about this.
‘I don’t need to tell you about waiting lists. A lot of the procedures are very reproducible, straightforward, very important, but they are relatively small operations that can be managed quickly and efficiently.’
Surgical care practitioners earn about £50,000 a year – twice the average nursing salary of £25,000 a year – making it an attractive career path.
Many surgical care practitioners started their careers as nurses but others were employed as ‘operating department practitioners’ – theatre staff who have done a three-year degree.
Although the Royal College of Surgeons supports the plans, it is concerned that surgical care practitioners won’t be properly regulated.
Nurses who retrain to become surgical care practitioners will still be overseen by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. The college believes they should be regulated by the General Medical Council, the doctors’ professional watchdog.
An NHS spokesman said: ‘The NHS is supporting the Government to deliver its pledge to deliver 50,000 more nurses.
‘This will require a combination of training and recruiting nurses, and helping our amazing staff who may otherwise have considered leaving our health service altogether, to retrain, upskill, develop their careers and stay in the NHS.’