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Boost in nurse training places key to Labour’s plan for the NHS

Shadow health minister reaffirms Labour promise to bolster preregistration nurse education, but party continues to be non-committal on how it would tackle NHS pay
Rosena Allin-Khan being interviewed on Sky News

Shadow health minister reaffirms Labour promise to bolster preregistration nurse education, but party continues to be non-committal on how it would tackle NHS pay

Shadow health minister and hospital doctor Rosena Allin-Khan Picture: Sky News

Labour has repeated its pledge to train 10,000 more nurses and midwives if it wins the next election.

Shadow mental health minister Rosena Allin-Khan, herself an emergency doctor, told Sky News today that nurses are ‘broken’ and that going to work is currently a ‘soul-destroying experience’.

Would a Labour government fund a pay rise for nurses?

Dr Allin-Khan highlighted Labour’s plan to train an extra 10,000 nurses and midwives every year while doubling the number of medical school places, training around 5,000 extra health visitors, and improving mental health services. However, Labour did not respond when Nursing Standard asked whether the plans included a pay rise for NHS nurses, or how those extra preregistration education places would be created.

‘I’ve been an emergency doctor for 17 years and this is the worst I have ever seen our NHS, which is a sentiment shared by most of my colleagues’

Rosena Allin-Khan, shadow health minister

‘Soul-destroying for NHS staff’

Hospital staff are reporting ‘war zone’ conditions with patients waiting hours for care at emergency departments, and ambulance crews and nurses treating people outside hospital entrances.

Dr Allin-Khan said: ‘When you go to work with that burden you have to understand the toll it takes. When you know that patient may not be getting the medication they need, may not be getting the level of care they need, may not be getting stroke treatment within the four-hour window… that is a very soul-destroying experience for NHS staff.’

Emergency department waiting times

Labour’s workforce pledge comes as the crisis in emergency care deepens, with the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours for care rocketing by 355% since last year.

Yesterday, health and social care secretary Stephen Barclay blamed a combination of Strep A, COVID-19 and flu for the pressures in the NHS over the Christmas break. He said the government is focused on freeing up hospital beds and creating capacity to relieve pressures on emergency departments and ensure ambulance handover times are speeded up, but failed to explain how that would be achieved without addressing recruitment and retention issues.

Dr Allin-Khan added in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme: ‘I’ve been an emergency doctor for 17 years and this is the worst I have ever seen our NHS, which is a sentiment shared by most of my colleagues.

‘For Stephen Barclay and Rishi Sunak to blame the pandemic and the flu crisis on the issue… we actually had in January 2020 just one A&E across the country meet the four-hour waiting target.’

England’s Department of Health and Social Care was contacted for comment.


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