Responding to the latest data from the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Royal College of Nursing Chief Nurse Professor Nicola Ranger said:
“The headline findings of this report don’t reflect what nurses are seeing on the NHS frontline. Since 2019, the NHS waiting list has grown four times faster than the nurse workforce, meaning there aren’t enough staff to provide the outstanding care patients deserve.
“The government’s over-reliance on unethical international recruitment from red-list countries has become the norm and cannot continue. It’s a false economy. The government should invest in nursing staff in the UK, funding nurse education and fair pay – not destabilising other health care systems.”
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Notes to editors
Analysis from the Royal College of Nursing earlier this month showed that NHS waiting lists have been growing at four times the rate than the nursing workforce since September 2019. The figures from the RCN make clear that the NHS continues to face dangerous staff shortages. In England, patient demand has far outstripped modest growth of the NHS workforce.
The RCN has also criticised proposals made by Ministers to cap the number of dependents internationally recruited health and care staff can bring on their visas as divisive and would demonise international colleagues.
