Tens of thousands of foreign nurses to be recruited by the NHS over the next five years

Tens of thousands of foreign nurses to be recruited by the NHS over the next five years

Over the next five years, the NHS plans to recruit tens of thousands of foreign nurses in an attempt to fill the gaps on struggling hospital wards, a report leaked to the Times has recently revealed.

Doctors and nurses have admitted to suffering from exhaustion in an overstretched health service and therefore a global recruitment drive will begin shortly, setting an ambitious target to recruit 5,000 foreign nurses every year to deal with the shortages.

The NHS is the fifth biggest employer in the UK with 1.3 million employed; however, there continues to be a shortage of qualified staff with there currently being around 100,000 missing staff. The report stated that more staff are needed if the NHS is going to able to provide the improved cancer care, GP service and mental health care the government has promised.

By 2024 there will still be around 38,000 vacancies, however without intervention this is predicted to be around 70,000.

Kate Smith, a Medical Negligence Solicitor at Ashtons Legal comments:

“It is clear that the NHS is suffering in terms of being understaffed and pressure is being put on staff to perform. It is good to have focus and a plan in place to address staff shortages; however, I do not think that it will completely solve the issues within the Trust. As a firm we are certainly seeing the impact of the lack of staff in such areas such as cancer care, GP service and mental health care and so without doubt, further focus should be given to these areas in order to prevent some devastating outcomes for patients”.