The chief nursing officer for England has spoken about the ongoing shortages of nurses across the country and how the government’s previous pledge for 50,000 more nurses is now “not enough”.
At one of her first in-person 2022 speeches since the start of the pandemic, Ruth May also revealed that she thought the removal of the student nurse bursary in England was “fundamentally the wrong decision”. Ms May was speaking at an event organised by the League of St Bartholomew’s Nurses in honour of pioneering nurse Pam Hibbs, who died following a Covid-19 infection in 2021 .
During her keynote address, Ms May said workforce remained a “big focus” for her team due to the “shortage” of nursing staff nationally. She said work to address the gaps was centred on the three areas of international recruitment, domestic training, and retention. She said numbers of nurses being recruited from overseas annually had risen from around 5,000 to 6,000 before the pandemic, to an expected 20,000 in this financial year.
“I’m very, very glad that the NHS has had a diverse workforce from its very inception. We have welcomed colleagues from across all countries of the world, and we will continue to do that,” Ms May said.“Before September 2019, we were recruiting about 5-6,000 international nurses a year. As of last month, we got up to this financial year being 17,000 in 10 months. “We will I’m sure be up to the 20,000 mark from one financial year for international recruitment, which I’m very proud of.”
She suggested that international recruitment was needed on such a scale to help address the shortfall caused by the decision to end free education for nurses in England from 2017 onwards. The axing of the student nurse bursary was “wrong” in her opinion, she told delegates at the event, which took place at St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London.“You will recall the decision was made by the then secretary of state, several secretary of states ago, to take away the bursary – fundamentally the wrong decision to make, in my view,” said Ms May.“As a result, this last August, we saw that the lowest numbers of people coming on to the register than we have seen in many years.”However, she said the fact numbers applying to study nursing had soared to record highs in 2021 – including a 38% increase in 18-year-old applicants – needed to be celebrated.
The CNO said she hoped to continue to increase the numbers of nurses being trained domestically in England.The current government made a pledge as part of its last election manifesto to secure 50,000 additional nurses for England by 2024.Ms May said the 50,000 pledge was welcome because it gave the government impetus to “focus on and invest in the future supply of nurses”.
However, after being questioned by a delegate about how many nurses the country truly needed now, Ms May said current targets fell short. She said the 50,000 target was the “right ambition at the time” and was “sufficiently challenging”.However, she later added: “Do I think 50,000 is enough? No I don’t. And I think that there’s another round of that, that we need to do.”“There will be a continuation of the need for nurses… nurses across the globe are going to be needed,” added Ms May.“But it’s right to do international recruitment, because we’ve had to fill the gap between the old bursary decision and the impact of that, and how we get domestic supply to catch up.”She said international nurse recruitment would continue in future, but “not necessarily at the rate that we’re doing”.
During the event, she was also questioned about how the NHS planned on balancing the need for ongoing infection prevention and control (IPC) measures, with the need to clear the patient backlog.She indicated potential changes ahead, such as removing social distancing measures in health settings but keeping the requirement to wear face coverings. She also suggested that the isolation period for staff who test positive for Covid-19 could be reduced further.“It’s a real balance of risk now,” said Ms May. “We really want to not have any nosocomial infections, there is something about tightening up and keeping these IPC precautions as much as we can.“Then equally, we want to open up to get on top of this elective waiting list.”She said she was “immensely proud of the way nurses have stepped forward” during the coronavirus pandemic.
However, she said the backlog in patients waiting for elective care meant more challenging times were ahead.“The hardest times are probably yet to come… because now we’ve got the elective backlog,” said Ms May.“Now we’ve going to think about those people that have been waiting a long time for their surgery… for their mental health care.”
Asked about the country’s nurse attrition rate, Ms May confirmed that an “uptick” was being seen in nurses and midwives leaving, which she placed partly down to staff having delayed their retirement to help with the pandemic.However, she said other nurses were expressing that they were just needing a break, which she said should be accommodated without staff being “judged”.
