Fewer nurses being trained in West Midlands
Monday 30th May 2011, 9:09AM BST.
The number of nurses being trained in the West Midlands will be slashed by almost a fifth – sparking fears over standards.
Health bosses have decided to cut 457 student nursing places at universities in the region, a drop of 17.5 per cent from September.
This is ahead of a planned reduction in professional staff, including nurses and doctors of around seven per cent by 2014.
Critics have condemned the plans claiming demands on the NHS are rising and a shortage of staff could lead to patients suffering poor care.
But the West Midlands Strategic Health Authority said the cuts were based on predictions by hospitals on what they need to meet demand. It also said more students were staying on in courses and the NHS was looking to be more efficient.
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Nevermind there is plenty of immigrant agency workers ready to drive standards down further.
Funny how ANYONE can give a prediction about something like hospital use based on demand it makes me laugh so what if a flu epidemic arises again and some poor people lose their lives will that be because of the flu or pen pushers making predictions on demand.
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Great, very reassuring. I remember the Thatcher years when she chopped all nurse training virtually at a stroke, even affecting the ones who were part trained, leaving years of wasted study and effort. As a result we ended up with a huge nurse shortage for years on end and had to end up putting up salaries and ultimately recruiting trained nurses from all around the world. There’s a moral argument to take into account here, what gives us the right to wreck whatever nursing facilities there are in poorer countries by poaching their trained staff? This NHS business is getting extremely worrying. I’m sure I remember the government proclamation that NHS funding would be “ringfenced”. Something tells me that they weren’t telling the truth.
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