Nurses with addictions and eating disorders are being denied access to specialist counselling services, occupational health nurses were warned in December.
Delegates to the Royal Coll-ege of Nursing’s occupational health nursing conference in Shropshire heard that, of 550 trusts polled in a survey, just 56% reported that employees had any access to specialist services that would be able to provide counselling for trauma, addiction and eating disorders.
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Barry McInnes, the RCN’s head of counselling services, warned that even when they were available some nurses were having to wait for up to a year to access services.
Many trusts did not have enough counsellors to comply with NHS guidelines which recommend one for every 2,000 staff members, he added.
