King's Fund backs Liberal Democrats' call to Conservative Government to scrap its "Nurse Tax" as health staff shortages rise.

Newcastle Liberal Democrats' Health spokesperson Dr Wendy Taylor has welcomed calls from the King's Fund to scrap the NHS fee for foreign health care professionals, She said:

"As we have been pointing out since they first raised the idea, with these fees, the Conservatives have effectively created a new Nurse Tax. It is an insult to the thousands of people who come to this country and dedicate their lives to working in our health service.

"The NHS currently relies on 10,000 doctors from the EU - not to mention 20,000 nurses and 35,000 other NHS staff. We've already lost more than 5,000 EU nurses in the last 2 years whilst the NHS is suffering a serious staffing shortage.

"Yet the Conservatives seem hell-bent on making the NHS's nursing crisis worse, and millions have to wait 3 weeks to see a GP since Johnson's pedge to cut delays.

"Johnson says he wants 50,000 more nurses but his disastrous nurse tax policy is a major deterrent to healthcare professionals immigrating to the UK and it should be scrapped immediately."