07.07.16
EU vote could make nursing shortage worse
More nurses must be recruited into the workforce to compensate for the potential loss of nurses from European Union countries following the UK’s vote to leave the EU, a new report from the Institute for Employment Studies (IES) says.
The report shows that although EU nurses make up 4.5% of the workforce against 8% from outside the EU, the numbers have been increasing because of restrictions on non-EU nurses and are especially high in London and the south east.
The Migration Advisory Committee (MAC), which commissioned the report, has recommended granting an extra 15,000 visas over the next three years to non-EU nurses. However, the IES said this wouldn’t be enough and that more long-term investment in workforce planning is needed to ensure a home-grown supply of nurses.
The report says that shortages in nurses are caused by an ageing workforce, with one in three nurses due to retire in the next ten years, combined with insufficient student nursing places and a need for higher staffing levels following the Francis report.
Dr Rachel Marangozov, lead author of the report, said: “With one in three nurses due to retire in the next ten years, there is now an urgent question for the government around who will replace them.
“With the uncertainty around Brexit, the recruitment pipeline from the EU is likely to be hit hard, and even the additional 15,000 visas for international nurses recommended by the MAC will not be sufficient to plug this gap in the workforce. The government needs to act now to ensure that the UK has a domestic supply of nurses to fill these future posts. This will require adequate and sustained investment in workforce planning.”
The government has proposed abolishing bursaries for student nurses, saying it would mean higher numbers could be recruited, but the NHS Clinical Commissioners nursing forum said yesterday that it opposed the proposals. It warned that no assessment has been made of the impact of leaving the EU on the proposals or the healthcare workforce.
Danny Mortimer, chief executive of NHS Employers, said: “We welcome the IES report which was written before the outcome of the EU referendum. There are significant concerns that the shortage of nurses in the UK will not be helped by the uncertainty felt by EU staff working in health and social care.
“We look forward to similar reports regarding other sectors who access the shortage occupation list, in advance of a new post-Brexit approach to skilled migrants entering the UK. It is clear that the ongoing shortage of nurses is not a short-term issue. The report identifies very clearly the complex factors which have led to the shortage of nursing, not least the need for more effective service planning to drive our workforce plans.”
The Nuffield Trust has also recommended restructuring the health workforce to address shortages.
Janet Davies, general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “This report makes sobering reading and it is clear that without urgent action the UK is heading for a major nursing shortage.
“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 EU.”
A Department of Health spokesperson said: “As the health secretary has already said, EU workers are a crucial part of our NHS and the training and retention of home-grown nurses is a top priority for this government.”
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