Julian has welcomed the news that the Government has delivered on its manifesto pledge to recruit an additional 50,000 nurses six months ahead of schedule.
As of September 2023, there were 51,245 additional nurses in the NHS compared to 2019, bringing the total number of NHS nurses to 352,000.
With the largest ever sustained growth in the NHS nursing workforce, the new nurses will be able to assist in providing hundreds of thousands of additional appointments, drive waiting lists down, and improve patient access to vital healthcare services.
This means that the North East and Yorkshire will be able to benefit from an additional 7,006 nurses, a 14% increase from those available in 2019.
The NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will build upon this achievement. With £2.4 billion in funding over the next five years, the plan will nearly double the number of adult nurse training places for the NHS by 2031. This will mean around 24,000 more nurse and midwife training places.
The combined measures the Government is taking to increase NHS funding, retain NHS workers, and recruit new staff will see at least an extra 170,000 nurses in place to assist patients by 2036/37.
Julian Smith said, “It is excellent news that people across Skipton and Ripon will get better access to NHS services as a result of the recruitment of these new nurses.”
“It is vital that we continue to provide funding to train new nurses to ensure that people get the healthcare they need.”
“I am glad that there is a plan in place to expand the nursing workforce even further and look forward to seeing the results of these initiatives.”
