BREXIT NURSE CRISIS
75% slump in staff joining from EU since referendum
THE number of nurses joining the NHS from Europe plunged by 75% after the Brexit vote.
Figures show that between September and December 2016, fewer than 200 EU nurses registered per month with the Nursing and Midwifery Council.
This compared with almost 800 per month in the same period in 2015 – and the Royal College of Nursing said a further 2,700 EU nurses left the register last year.
RCN chief executive Janet Davies said: “The Government is turning off the supply of qualified nurses from around the world at the very moment the health service is in a staffing crisis like never before.”
One in 15 nurses and midwives currently working in the NHS in England is from another EU country.
The RCN said the staffing situation is already bleak, with 24,000 jobs unfilled in England – and one in three nurses to retire in the next 10 years.
Shadow Health Secretary Jon Ashworth blamed the “negligent” Tory Government for the shortfall and called on Ministers to guarantee the rights of EU nationals here after Brexit. He said: “The Government ought to value and protect Britain’s EU nurses, doctors and midwives, not leave the threat of uncertainty hanging over them as a bargaining chip in negotiations with Brussels.”
The warning came after Labour said it would not back the Prime Minister’s Brexit deal unless it secures the “exact same benefits” as being in the EU’s single market. In a speech today, Shadow Brexit Secretary Keir Starmer will set out six key “Brexit tests” for Theresa May as she prepares to trigger Article 50 on Wednesday. Sir Keir will say: “All of us want the best for Britain. But the stakes are high and the Prime Minister’s approach so far does not bode well. Failure to meet the tests I have set out will of course affect how Labour votes in the Commons.”
Mrs May travels to Scotland today to plead for unity. But the trip is controversial as it comes as Holyrood prepares to vote on a second independence referendum. The PM will say that we must never allow “our Union to become looser and weaker, or our people to drift apart”.
A Department of Health spokesman insisted overseas workers were a “crucial” part of the NHS adding it continued to “invest in the frontline” with “13,400 more nurses since May 2010 and over 52,000 nurses in training”. French presidential hopeful Marine Le Pen yesterday told a rally in Lille that the EU “will die because the people do not want it anymore”.