Chancellor of the Exchequer, Rishi Sunak has missed the chance to invest in healthcare. He has put forward his summer statement and this outlines the spending plans for the government. The main problem is that the statement doesn’t seem to cover healthcare as much as it should. Rishi Sunak has stated that he is going to be doing everything he can to boost the economy, but at the end of the day, he is not doing what he should be, which is investing in the one industry which is keeping everyone going right now. Some believe that the investments that he is making will really help to spur on economic growth, which is what people need right now. He believes that by doing this, he can make the country more resilient while also saving lives.

Healthcare

The Chancellor should know that we entered the current pandemic with over 40,000 vacancies for nursing in England. It is incredibly disappointing to see that he has absolutely no measures designed to address the long-standing issue that revolves around recruitment and retention. This includes pay and even staffing. If issues like this keep on going unnoticed then it looks like even more issues are going to arise and this is not going to be good for anyone. At the end of the day, this is going to affect those who work in a nurse agency the most because they are not going to be able to fill the vacancies they have. If you work in any kind of nursing recruitment agency then this is going to affect you as well, because of the knock-on effect of pay and staffing. Steps need to be taken right now to try and address the structural issues that are going to crop up because if not, then this will pose as even bigger problems in the future.

The RCN have demanded a very long-term fix for the workforce issues that are currently being experienced by nurses. This is even the case with the current rise in registered nurses. At the end of the day, figures might show an increase in the total number of nurses, associates and even nurse agency providers, but the NMC are concerned that the impact of Covid-19 is going to affect the nursing recruitment agency sector for years to come. The report has shown that even before the pandemic, the amount of stress that staff were under was not good and that so many had to leave the profession they were in because they could not cope. These concerns have since been echoed by RCN and they are now calling for a long-term fix for the nursing shortage that is happening right now.

Dame Donna Kinnair

Dame Donna Kinnair, who is the Chief Executive over at RCN has stated that they do in fact want to celebrate the diversity of the global profession and they can see that numbers are now moving in the right direction. Right now though, the UK government have to do everything they can to make sure that the nursing sector is attractive and that it is also meaningful too. They know that this is a gift to the workforce right now and for that reason, they have to do everything they can to keep people safe. The data is showing that people are quitting nursing because they cannot handle the amount of pressure they are under and this is making the shortages even more acute. It’s very tough to see that every single day, people are struggling because there aren’t enough nurses to go round, but nurses themselves are struggling too.

UCAS have now published an update which talks about the number of people who are applying to study nursing. Those who want to enrol will have to apply by the 30th of June. They have shown that the number of people who are applying is now up by 15% and that this is very good news so far. The increase is positive, says the RCN, but a much bigger increase is needed if the government want to come close to their commitment of having 50,000 more nurses in the UK by the end of the parliament year. Mike Adams who is the RCN director has come out to say that applications have reduced by 17.4% since the year 2016 and this was the final year of the bursary. This means that even if all of the latest applications happened to be accepted, which is not likely, the gap in the workforce would not be closed.

The Pandemic

The pandemic has put extra strain on those who operate a nurse agency and it has also gone on to affect those who work in a nursing recruitment agency too. At the end of the day, the effort that they have shown needs to be done as an investment in nurses for the future. The government have to make sure that they invest properly in domestic nursing and they also need to make sure that the patient need is met over the long-term. If this is to be achieved, then the debt of those who have had to study needs to be wiped. This would show that the government are doing whatever they can to support the current need and it would also help those who need it the most. This isn’t going to be done, however.

So many people who work as social care workers or even in a nurse agency are now finding it difficult to qualify for the new Health and Care Visa. There are even those who are signed up to a nursing recruitment agency right now who do not qualify and this that they are not going to be exempt from the unfair health surcharge that is applied to immigrants. The government have released even more details about the visa and the surcharge to try and make sure that everything is done to give those who need it, a fair service.

The New Plans

The new plans have been announced and they are going to make the whole visa application much faster and even cheaper for nurses. This is designed for those who work in the NHS sector or even from overseas, but it won’t be beneficial to those who are not eligible for the Tier 2 visa route. This is otherwise known as the General visa route. The government have followed up on the 14th of July with even more announcements from the IHS. The unfair fee is not just, and the RCN have campaigned against it too. The government have promised to try and make sure that those who are exempt do not pay the fee. Those who are part of the second tier therefore do not need to pay the price, but at the end of the day, anyone who has paid it will also be eligible for a refund. The problem here is that healthcare workers who do not qualify for the new visa will not be exempt from IHS. Instead, they are going to have to pay it and this is really going to work against those who are in the social care industry.