*UNDER CONSTRUCTION* Signal-boosting #ToryBritain truths to the nation. Helping YOU be part of the fightback.
From the Daily Mirror: Austerity cuts will leave the NHS short of almost 70,000 nurses within five years, according to a leaked Government plan. It also blames part of the shortfall on George Osborne’s decision to abolish bursaries for student nurses when he was Chancellor in 2015.
From the Daily Mirror: More than 300 nurses have taken their own lives in just seven years, figures reveal.
From the Daily Mirror: Over-stretched health visitors have warned that children will die unless cuts to their service are reversed.
From Morning Star: The nursing profession has been left in “managed decline,” the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said today, responding to a further drop in student numbers due to bursaries being replaced by loans.
The number of nursing students from England taking university places has fallen by 4 per cent from last year and 11 per cent since 2016 when bursaries were axed, according to data from the Universities and Colleges Admissions Service.
The RCN said the decline could jeopardise the future supply of nurses at a time when the NHS is dire need of such staff.
From Daily Mirror: Tory ministers have failed spectacularly to meet the Government’s own targets for recruiting apprentice nurses, falling 97 per cent short of its aim. Just 30 have taken up the scheme in its first year, against a target of 1,000.
From Daily Mirror: Nearly 700 school nurses have been axed by the Tories, 23% of the total NHS workforce in English classrooms.
From Daily Mirror: Tory MPs voted to inflict a further blow to student nurses by extending the cuts to bursaries to which experts say has led to chronic nurse shortages.
From BBC News: The NHS is “haemorrhaging” nurses with one in 10 now leaving the NHS in England each year, figures show. More than 33,000 walked away last year, piling pressure on understaffed hospitals and community services. The figures represent a rise of 20% since 2012-13, and mean there are now more leavers than joiners. Nurse leaders said it was a “dangerous and downward spiral”.
From Channel 4 News Fact Check: The latest figures are from August 2017. In that month, the equivalent of 280,307 full-time nurses and health visitors were employed by the NHS. The figure was around 650 higher at the time of the May 2010 General Election.
It’s also true that the August figure is around 1,500 lower than it was a year earlier.
[Read full article on Channel 4 News website…]
From Daily Mirror: Campaigners fear an NHS recruitment crisis after Tory Chancellor George Osborne axed grants for student nurses worth £6,000 a year.