'UK is completely unprepared' to deal with nurse shortage warns RCN

Little action has been taken in the past decade to tackle nurse retention issues and the problem of an ageing nursing workforce.

In its report on the labour market for nurses in the UK published today the Institute for Employment Studies is scathing about workforce planning since 2005.

Its figures, collected on behalf of the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), show:

• One in ten nurse posts in England unfilled.
• 29% of nurses are aged over 50.
• 13% of nurses come from overseas.

RCN warning

The RCN has responded by warning the UK is heading for ‘a major nursing shortage’ unless urgent action is taken.

The college’s general secretary Janet Davies said long-term workforce planning and not cutting nursing student commissions would have made the crisis ‘preventable’, adding that moves to scrap bursaries would only worsen the situation.

The report shows 17% of training places were cut between 2009 and 2013.

Ms Davies added: ‘Thanks to years of short-term thinking, the UK is completely unprepared to deal with the challenges posed by an ageing workforce, increasing demand and now the uncertainty caused by leaving the European Union.’

Recruitment influences

The IES report was commissioned in March when the MAC recommended leaving nursing on its Shortage Occupation List to allow visas to be issued for 15,000 nurses from outside the European Economic Area (EEA) over the next three years.

It found region and type of trust were the ‘only consistent and significant influences’ on recruitment of non-EEA nurses.

Publication was held off due to the EU Referendum – the result of which threatens the futures of the 33,000 European nurses currently working in the NHS in the UK.

Three recommendations

Report author Rachel Marangozov makes three recommendations:

• Make data collection methods of the effectiveness of retention interventions consistent across all trusts.
• Closely monitor student numbers in the wake of the bursary loss.
• Discover why London and the South East recruits a disproportionately higher number of non-EEA nurses than the rest of the UK.

A Department of Health spokesperson insisted EU workers remain a crucial part of the NHS and the training and retention of home-grown nurses is ‘a top priority for this government’.

Read the ISE report on the labour market for nurses in the UK