NHS nursing recruitment crisis could push health service to complete collapse

15 February 2024 , 00:01

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The NHS is facing a nursing recruitment crisis amid a decline in applicants, a union boss has said (Image: PA)

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.

Shadow Health Secretary Wes Streeting said Rishi Sunak is 'driving nurses of the future away from the NHS' (Getty Images)

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?

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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”.

The Royal College of Nursing is demanding tuition fees be scrapped for nursing degrees (Getty Images)

General Secretary Ms Cullen told her: “We believe the situation poses a direct threat to the sustainability of the NHS and patient safety.

“A decline in applicants risks causing a cascading effect, with fewer students accepted onto nursing courses leading to lower numbers graduating and becoming registered nurses. The Government must take ­immediate action to prevent further decline in nursing recruitment.”

The RCN is demanding tuition fees be scrapped for nursing degrees and wants a student loan forgiveness scheme for those staying in the NHS. NHS Providers deputy chief ­executive Saffron Cordery warned the recruitment crisis threatens to scupper the NHS Long Term Workforce Plan, which the Tories have only committed to fund the first five years of.

She added: “Without measures to ensure the NHS remains ­attractive to future and existing staff, it risks being just a ­pipedream.” A report by the Nuffield Trust last year found UK-trained nurses have fallen almost a third in just two years. Four in 10 are now recruited from overseas.

Martin Bagot