Row over nursing targets

NHS 'needs 110,000 recruits by 2004' to meet targets

Nursing leaders have accused the government of deceiving the public over its promise to expand the nursing workforce by 20,000 by 2004.

The Department of Health insists its figures in the NHS Plan for England have always meant including part time staff as well as full time.

But the Royal College of Nursing - which considered the target as "highly ambitious" - said it was disappointed by the clarification.

An independent study commissioned by the college, published on Monday, suggests that if those nurses leaving the profession are counted, 110,000 new recruits will be needed to meet the 2004 target.

Governments and employers have to reduce the reality gap

Christine Hancock, RCN general secretary

Opposition ministers accused the government of deception - masking the true situation by failing to differentiate between full and part-time nurses.

The RCN said the target was "achievable" provided NHS chiefs stuck to their pledge to implement its recommendations to recruit and retain nurses.

The government's chief nursing officer, Sarah Mullally, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme that the strategy was designed to encourage flexible working practices for nurses, and to enable more to return from retirement without losing their pension rights.

Making up the difference

The Making Up The Difference report, by experts from Queen Margaret College in Edinburgh, says difficulties in recruitment are made worse by an ageing workforce, a relatively small pool of non-working nurses who could be tempted back and competition from other employers.

RCN general secretary Christine Hancock said nursing was at the heart of providing the best patient care but the service needed enough nurses with the right skills and expertise.

The government says billions are being spent on recruitment

"There is already a raft of measures which is beginning to have an encouraging effect in increasing numbers," she said.

"But governments and employers have to reduce the reality gap and nurses must experience a positive difference in their day-to-day working lives, rather than just hearing rhetoric."

A Department of Health spokesman said the NHS now had 16,000 more nurses than when the government took power in 1997.

But shadow health secretary Liam Fox said the report confirmed that the government's pledge on nurse numbers "was a complete fabrication".

He said: "It is difficult to see how anything the Government say on health can now be trusted.

"There is an increasing gap between the NHS that Ministers talk about and the real NHS which nurses work in and patients are treated by."

Ten point plan

Ministers set a target of recruiting 20,000 extra nurses in England by 2004.

The RCN report found a nationwide shortage of 22,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors.

The report notes that if retirement and other losses stay at their current rates, 90,000 nurses will have left by 2004.

Together with 20,000 planned extra recruits, the NHS will actually need to fill in excess of 110,000 vacancies by the government's target date of 2004.

A 10-point plan set out by the RCN includes calls for:

• pay rises to bring them into line with police officers, teachers and social workers
• a mortgage subsidy scheme to stop nurses being priced out of the housing market
• rights to parental and carers' leave, flexible working hours and workplace creches
• cadet schemes for 16-year-old school-leavers and "fast-track" programmes to attract recruits

A Department of Health spokesman said the government was investing billions of pounds to get more staff into the NHS.

"We have always been very clear that our figures involve the number of nurses not the number of full-time equivalents," he said.

Paul Burstow, Liberal Democrat Health Spokesman, said: "The NHS Plan has failed to address the stark fact that without better pay and conditions, younger nurses will not be persuaded to join the NHS."