Commenting on Jeremy Hunt’s promise to fund 5,000 new training places for nurses, Nuffield Trust Chief Executive Nigel Edwards said:
“The NHS is facing a double whammy of the consequences of years of dire workforce planning and the potential loss of much-needed staff due to Brexit. Investing now to train the nurses of the future is not only sensible, it is essential.
“The real test for this proposal will come in how readily these new places are taken up. With the abolition of nursing bursaries, we have to hope that potential nurses continue to be attracted to the profession. But, as the RCN showed last week, nurses are increasingly stressed and demoralised by the very shortages this policy is intending to tackle.
“Tackling staff shortages must go hand in hand with efforts to improve low morale across the health service.”