Health secretary denies too many nurses have been trained

Patricia Hewitt, the health secretary, has rebutted claims that the government’s policies have resulted in too many nurses being trained.

Denying that possible nursing job cuts were a sign of severe financial dilemmas in the NHS, Ms Hewitt said that only one in ten health trusts have severe financial problems.

She told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that there were 85,000 more nurses employed now than in 1997 and that some trusts have had to release staff they took on when they could not already afford to do so.

The health secretary stated: “It’s because we have got so many more nurses in post that actually it is more difficult for the newly qualified nurses to get jobs.”

“What we are doing is working with the hospitals in making sure that everything possible is done to make sure that newly qualified staff, not just nurses but others as well, do get jobs,” she added.

Ms Hewitt said that some may have to travel further or take a job not quite what some nurses hoped for. She concluded by saying that the important thing was that patients were saying that the care given to them had been “far better” than four or five years ago.

Despite annual NHS budget increases of 10 per cent, much of this has been swallowed up by wages, which accounts for two-thirds of the NHS budget.

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