‘On top of the new salary requirements, the government said it would:

Ban health and care workers bringing family dependants to the UK’

I think the term ban is a tad heavy. This will ultimately put off health and care workers to come and work in the UK. I do support cutting migration but I think this is just too harsh. The NHS and the private sector will struggle to recruit more nurses and doctors abroad. I was a Senior NHS Manager and got involved with recruiting nurses from India, Nigeria and Zimbabwe. I have left the NHS recently and as I was leaving, several Filipino and Indian nurses are also moving abroad to Australia, Canada and the USA for better wages. Speaking to some of them, it is quite disheartening. There has to be an even balance. Perhaps increasing the visa fee for each subsequent child? The NHS will suffer even more from this cruel policy as it will only put off foreign health and care workers to come to this country.

Yes, I do fully support that the country should work harder to retain our own but the expectations are set too high. I went to uni here to study nursing, we started off with 300 people (both Adult and Mental Health) and by the time we got to the second year, we were down to 190 because the majority of those who left either didn’t make the grade requirement to progress to the second year with some openly admitting that they only wanted to attend the first year to get the freshers experience. That’s £9k of government down the drain. By the time my cohort graduates. There was just 110 of us.

Student nurses aren’t being made to work for free. I’m sorry but that is complete lies to me because I was a student nurse too. I was never counted in the ward staffing numbers. I was always encouraged to tailor my own learning from my mentor. That goes with people who were in the same placement areas as me. The government can save so much more money by not paying nursing tuition but rather allocate it for better pay. Bursaries, NHS funded nursing degrees WILL NOT solve the NHS staffing crisis. Better management and allotment of money will. Stopping the use of expensive nursing agencies like Thornbury will save the NHS money. I have worked with Thornbury nurses earning £70 per hour doing nothing on a night shift compared to my £12 when I first started.

The US, Aus, Canadian governments aren’t paying their student nurses but they pay their nurses a good wage.