The landmark Times Health Commission lays the ground for political consensus on sensible reform of health and care in England. High among its calls is a plan to drive up student nurse numbers and keep staff working in the NHS.
Across England’s NHS, services are overwhelmed, a fact that won’t surprise the six million people on treatment waiting lists, the many others being cared for in corridors, or those waiting hours to be seen in overflowing emergency departments. It is a desperate picture. But it could yet worsen, driven by an ever-growing crisis in the nursing workforce.
The latest figures from the university admissions service show that in only two years, the number of people applying to study nursing in England has fallen by a quarter. Some 42,000 nursing posts are sitting empty. Care is going undelivered, patients are suffering. The alarm bells should be sounding across Whitehall.
When Jeremy Hunt was health secretary, his Treasury predecessor, George Osborne, removed the nurse training bursary, a subsidy for those wanting to join the profession. Ministers also made nursing students subject to tuition-fee loans of more than £9,000 a year. Numbers fell instantly. They’re still falling.
Much greater care should have been taken when overhauling recruitment into a profession as vital as this, and it soon became clear the government had made a mistake.
Advertisement
On every measure, the reform of nursing education has failed. The prospect of debt in excess of £50,000 and wider cost of living pressures have caused student applications to drop. It has also caused serious hardship for those who pursue the career regardless.
Alongside the reintroduction of the universal maintenance grant, a loan-forgiveness model could be a potent and cost-effective tool in tackling the shortage of nurses. Those who work in the NHS or wider public services for five years post-graduation could see 50 per cent written off their loans, rising to 100 per cent for those who stay for ten years. Enticing the nurses of tomorrow to join and stay working in the NHS should be a priority for the chancellor in next week’s budget.
• The Times Health Commission’s 10 recommendations to save the NHS
Those who educate, employ and represent nurses are calling on the government to take immediate action and boost nurse recruitment. We enjoy the support of the myriad policy experts, clinicians and academics who drew up the Times commission’s recommendations. Can Hunt, the chancellor who best understands the NHS and who knows the rarity of consensus in healthcare, easily cast it aside?
Pat Cullen is general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing
