Labour accuses Tories of secret plan to cut number of NHS nurses after election
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Version 0 of 1. Labour has accused the Conservatives of having secret plans to cut the number of NHS nurses after the election. The party says the cuts are revealed in an official government document that forecasts NHS trusts will employ nearly 2,000 fewer nurses over the next four years. The Tories have dismissed the claims, saying the report, Workforce Plan for England, was based on out-of-date figures before they committed to increase NHS spending. The plan envisages that the number of full-time NHS nurses will fall by 1,966 by 2019, more than 1,500 of them mental health posts. The shadow health secretary, Andy Burnham, said Labour would fund 20,000 more nurses and 8,000 more GPs. “These plans show the NHS simply cannot take five more years of David Cameron. He is saying one thing in public, but drawing up plans in secret to cut nurses,” he said. “It is clear the Tory NHS promises have an expiry date of 8 May stamped on them.” Labour also pointed to analysis by the independent House of Commons library of the latest NHS workforce census, which showed the number of nurses per million people in the UK had fallen from 5,324 in 2009 to 5,172 in 2014. The Conservatives, however, said the workforce plan, published in December, pre-dated the party’s pledge to increase health spending in England by £8bn a year by the end of the next parliament. “The only threat to nursing numbers is the threat of an Ed Miliband-SNP government that refuses to give the NHS the money it has said it needs,” a spokesman said. Labour was also challenged over the figures by a journalist from the Health Service Journal, who claimed on Twitter that NHS trusts expect to increase their requirements by 5,641 by 2019. Labour said he had misunderstood the figures and confused supply and demand. @LabourHealth No you've selectively used parts of report. It says providers plan to increase by 5641 FTE by 2019: pic.twitter.com/D42MawL2fI |