Community nursing in Lambeth is at risk due to too many vacancies, with 23 per cent of community nursing roles empty, according to council and NHS documents.

Community nurses work outside of a hospital, providing treatment in clinics, health centres, residential accommodation and patients’ own homes, helping the NHS meet the needs of elderly, disabled or vulnerable patients who may not be able to easily visit the hospital.

According to the documents, the impact of the vacancies on the service is “major,” with a likelihood patients will not be provided with safe nursing.

“[there is a] likely risk to service delivery due to vacancies in community nursing resulting in inability to provide quality safe community nursing,” the document explained.

According to the report, the Lambeth Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) was using an increased number of student nurses to address the shortfall, as well as making agency workers into permanent staff.

But vacancy levels in the home care service @home, which operates across Lambeth and Southwark, were reducing.

The document outlined an action plan for the issue, which included mobile working and the use of iPads, as well as making weekly reviews of the workforce.

There was also a major risk that the demand for acute psychiatric beds at Lambeth CCG will not reduce “resulting in poor outcomes for delayed transfers of care and negative financial impact,” according to the document.

Figures from January showed nationally, one in 10 nurses were leaving the NHS in England each year.

More than 33,000 walked away in 2017, piling pressure on understaffed hospitals and community services.