Philip Hammond may have missed an opportunity to try and give nurses the education they need and the money as well. His statement contained no words about any nursing bursaries. The government are going to be waiting to see what kind of funding is available from the nursing workforce plan. The government are now delaying any guarantees until later on in the year. The number of students taking nursery courses has dropped significantly and applications have fallen by over 30%. This is staggering to say the least, and it is safe to say that those who work in a nurse jobs or even a nursing recruitment agency will know this more than anyone.

The acting RCN chief has stated that nurse education has undergone a lot of changes, and that funding limitations have been imposed. If the amount of applications continue to fall then this will have a huge impact on the future and it will also make it much harder for people to invest in the industry. The chancellor has also announced that there is a timescale for the comprehensive spending review. This is going to be linked with the autumn budget and that more announcements are going to be made in the future. The government doesn’t seem to be recognising the data or even that the clock is ticking down. Nurse numbers are going to be stretched so thin that the patient will become unsafe. This is shocking news to say the least but before more funding can be secured, there needs to be more research done to try and find out what is really happening. Right now, only time will tell what is going to be happening but it’s safe to say that more needs to be done about this.