NHS nurses are facing growing risks of making mistakes with patients’ medication because one in eight nursing jobs are now vacant, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) has warned.

Widespread understaffing is creating huge pressure on those who remain, and “medication errors become far more likely when staff are overstretched and unable to give their patients the attention they deserve” the RCN said on Saturday.

The warning came on the fourth annual World Patient Safety Day, which was established by the World Health Organisation (WHO) “to call for global solidarity and concerted action to improve patient safety.”