Nursing crisis as EU recruits dive
THE NHS is facing a growing workforce crisis as hospitals struggle to recruit tens of thousands of nurses.
Ministers have been warned one in five posts on some wards are vacant as recruitment from the European Union has collapsed.
It comes as the UK faces an “uncertain” winter as it tackles flu and Covid-19, according to the chief of the UK Health Security Agency.
Dr Jenny Harries has warned there is lower immunity to flu this year with experts predicting it could take 60,000 lives over the winter. She said: “Early evidence suggests you are twice as likely to die from having two together, than just having Covid alone. So I think it’s an uncertain winter ahead.”
Recent NHS figures show there are about 39,000 vacancies for registered nurses in England.
The number of nurses from
Europe has fallen by more than 90% – from 9,389 in 2015/16 to 810 in 2020/21. Thousands of nursing shifts each week cannot be filled, according to hospital safe staffing reports seen by the Observer. NHS trusts are being paid up to £7,000 for each vacant post by NHS England to try to recruit nurses from overseas.
Patricia Marquis, of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “There just aren’t enough staff to deliver the care that is needed.
“We should never have got into a position where we were so dependent on international nurses. We are on a knife-edge.” Saffron Cordery, deputy of NHS Providers, called for a fully costed workforce plan in the Government’s spending review this month. She said: “We’ve had workforce shortages for many years,and we’ve seen that exacerbated by Brexit.”