NHS Staff Shortages In South East Worsen Under Tories
The latest figures on NHS vacancies reveal that there was 6,180 vacancies for nurses in the NHS in the South East in July to September 2019. This means that 13.1% of posts were unfilled, showing the NHS staff shortage crisis to get worse.
The Conservatives have presided over a staffing crisis in our health service, failing to adequately ensure the NHS has the workforce it needs to care for our loved ones.
Even worse, Boris Johnson's pledge for 50,000 new nurses isn't even true. What is true is the Conservative's manifesto commitment to introduce a nurse tax for EU workers.
Over 11,600 NHS staff from the EU have left the health service in the three years since the Brexit vote, including 4,783 nurses. The Conservatives are only going to discourage more nurses from coming to work in the UK with their manifesto pledges.
Following the release of the statistics, Graham Colley, Liberal Democrat Candidate for Rochester and Strood said: "These figures reveal just how desperately short of nurses our NHS is. For years the Conservatives have ignored the NHS staffing crisis, leaving it understaffed, under-resourced, and underfunded.
"What the Tories are proposing in this election will not only fail to solve the crisis, but in fact make things worse. The Conservative's attacks on freedom of movement and their plans to implement a nurse tax will only drive away the EU health professionals we need.
"Our NHS currently relies on the hard work of 20,000 EU nurses. To discourage EU nurses from working in the NHS when we already have a shortage, partly due to the 5000 nurses who have already left the NHS, makes no sense at all.
"Liberal Democrats will build a brighter future where the NHS has the staff it needs and patients receive the care they need. We will stop Brexit and invest in the NHS by raising £7 billion a year from a penny on income tax to build a brighter future for our health service."
ENDS
Notes to editors:
Figures on nursing vacancies are taken from the NHS website.
Additional Notes for Editors:
Graham Colley
Graham Colley is the President of Liberal Democrat Lawyers Association.
He was educated at Nottingham High School, University College of Wales, Aberystwyth and the College of Europe, Bruges. He has an MBA from City University (Cass) Business School and an LLM from University of Kent.
Whilst a student he helped Geraint Howells MP in Ceredigion.
After helping Simon Hughes'election in the famous Bermondsey by-election, Graham became candidate in Mid-Kent in 1987 and 1992. He was a county councillor for Medway South.
Graham has been a lifelong European activist. He set up the Aberystwyth Group for Europe, whilst at university and was a youth officer in the 1975 Referendum.
Graham was number sevenon the London list in the highly successful European Election campaign in May 2019, in which saw three Lib Dem candidates elected as MEPs.
A former Legal Aid lawyer in London and Chatham, he is now a solicitor in private practice in Rochester.
He is a member of the Lloyd George Society and has a continuing interest in Wales and is learning Welsh.
He is a keen touring cyclist and has only driven his car for 4000 miles in three years, preferring to, where possible, use train and bike.