Posted 09 May 2024 - 16:20
Posted 09 May 2024 - 16:20
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Freeze on nursing degree places branded as ‘incomprehensible’
A freeze in number of undergraduate places in Northern Ireland is short-sighted at a time of reliance on foreign recruitment and agency staff says nurses’ union
A freeze in number of undergraduate places in Northern Ireland is short-sighted at a time of reliance on foreign recruitment and agency staff says nurses’ union
A freeze in nurse education places has been branded a false economy, given the health service’s reliance on agency staff and overseas recruitment.
Cuts to 300 nursing degree places made last year in Northern Ireland will be maintained as the executive claims it cannot fund their reinstatement.
Health minister Robin Swann said he had hoped to announce an overall increase in nurse training places for 2024-25 but regretted that intense budget pressures meant the number of funded places would stay at 1,025 in the next academic year.
Lack of investment in undergraduate nurse education can only deepen workforce crisis
The RCN called the decision ‘extremely short-sighted’, predicting it would only worsen the workforce crisis in Northern Ireland, where there are currently around 3,000 NHS nursing vacancies.
‘Storing up problems for the future that are expensive to fix is incomprehensible’
Rita Devlin, executive director, RCN Northern Ireland
The college’s Northern Ireland executive director Rita Devlin said: ‘The RCN has warned for years about the dangers of cutting the number of nurses we train and the damage this will do to patient care. This penny-wise, pound-foolish approach to workforce planning is extremely short-sighted and to continue to repeat the mistakes of the past is frankly outrageous.’
‘As nurses, we understand there are constraints on the health budget, but storing up problems for the future that are expensive to fix if you are then reliant on nurses from other countries and agency staff, is incomprehensible.’
Hundreds of millions of pounds spent on paying nursing agencies
At the start of the year, Mr Swann confirmed that £400 million had been spent on agency staff by the department in 2022-23.
In 2020, Stormont pledged to provide an additional 900 nursing training places over three years and increased annual funded university places from 1,025 to 1,325 in 2020-21, 2021-22 and 2022-23. But undergraduate places were cut back down to 1,025 in 2023-24 despite warnings the move would suppress supply to the future nursing workforce.
Surplus of nursing degree places elsewhere in the UK
In contrast, universities in Wales have said they are struggling to fill increasing number of nursing places as applications are dwindling. Only 2,268 of the available 2,701 were filled in the last academic year, 2023-24.
Mr Swann added: ‘I have warned that the budgetary position for health would have a heavy impact on key areas, including training. This is the first confirmation of that highly regrettable reality.’
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