The nursing recruitment crisis could push an NHS already crippled by Tory cuts closer to collapse, union chief Pat Cullen warned.
And unless No10 urgently acts to reverse the growing catastrophe, patient safety will be further at risk. UCAS data published today shows 31,100 people applied for UK nursing degree courses for 2024, down from 33,570 last year, 41,220 in 2022 and 46,040 in 2021.
Graduates often end up tens of thousands of pounds of debt and face poor pay and conditions on the wards. A combination of NHS cuts, increased workloads, exhaustion and a feeling of being undervalued has already led to an exodus of UK-trained nurses from the NHS, leaving 42,000 vacancies in England alone.
Decline
Labour laid the blame at the PM’s door. Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said: “Rishi Sunak drove nurses out on strike for the first time in history. Now he’s driving nurses of the future away from the NHS all together.
“The Prime Minister has blamed nurses for his own failure to cut waiting lists. Is it any wonder young students don’t fancy life as a punchbag for government ministers?
The Royal College of Nursing has written to Health Secretary Victoria Atkins to highlight its “deep concern about the rapidly deteriorating state of nurse recruitment”.
General Secretary Ms Cullen told her: “We believe the situation poses a direct threat to the sustainability of the NHS and patient safety.
19 фев 2024
