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Hundreds of nurses and midwives aged over 70, NMC reveals

More than 500 nurses and midwives aged over 70 are practising in the UK, the regulator has revealed.
Older nurse

More than 500 nurses and midwives practising in the UK are aged over 70, the regulator has revealed.


A total of 518 nurses and midwives are aged 71 and above. Picture: iStock

Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) chief executive Jackie Smith said 518 nurses and midwives on the regulator's registers are aged 71 and above.

Looming problem

As of March this year, the total number of nurses and midwives on the register stood at 690,000.

About 191,000 nurses and midwives on the NMC register are aged over 51, Ms Smith told the Queen’s Nursing Institute conference on Monday.

‘If that isn’t telling all of you nurses that there’s a problem looming, I do not know what it is telling you,’ she told the audience.

Revalidation data

Ms Smith also shared new revalidation data that shows for the first time in which field nurses and midwives practice.

It shows more than half (56% of registrants) are based in hospitals, care homes account for 8% and community and district nursing is 18% of the register.

Ms Smith said: ‘This is the first time we have revalidation data on where people work.’


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