Nursing students raise job fears

The East Kent trust runs the William Harvey Hospital in Ashford

Nursing students in Kent fear they may have no jobs to go to, because hospitals in the county are employing fewer newly-qualified nurses.

The East Kent Hospitals NHS Trust, which has sites in Canterbury, Margate, Ashford, Dover and Folkestone, admitted there were not as many posts available.

There are fewer hospital jobs due to a move towards more community-based care.

Student Roy Smith, at Canterbury Christ Church University, said he and many others were "facing the dole queue".

Mr Smith, 38, a student representative at the university, is about to qualify from his final year of nursing studies.

£35m savings

"I've actually been turned down by the East Kent trust," he said.

"People are being interviewed at the moment but I think it's less than a quarter of the total [number of students]."

Julie Barton, deputy director of nursing at the trust, admitted: "We haven't got as many posts for newly-qualified nurses as we were hoping to have at this time of year.

"We stopped using agency nurses and we've been able to reduce our vacancies quite substantially."

Ms Smith said the trust would do all it could for students who had trained with them by trying to recruit "as we can over the next few months as vacancies arise".

The East Kent trust previously said it was looking to make savings of £35m by closing beds and reducing the length of time patients stay in hospital.

In May, a survey by Nursing Standard magazine said training places for nurses were being cut nationally.