UK nurse shortage ‘needs addressing by next government’

The political party elected as a result of next month's general election needs to address the increasingly prevalent nurse shortage the UK is currently experiencing.

This is according to the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which has warned that the number of nurses working for the NHS fell by around 2,000 between May 2010 and December 2014, meaning that action needs to be taken to encourage more individuals to enter the profession to prevent problems from arising as a result of the shortage.

Demand for NHS services is dramatically increasing, meaning it is more important than ever for more people to be choosing a nursing career.

According to figures from the RCN, 50,000 individuals applied for a nursing job last year, but there were only 21,000 vacancies for them to apply for – something the next government urgently needs to address, the college warned.

Commenting on the statistics, chief executive and general secretary of the RCN Dr Peter Carter said: "We warned that cutting the workforce numbers to fund the NHS reorganisation and to fund the efficiency savings was the wrong course to take."