NHS staff shortages worsen under Tories - one in eight nursing posts unfilled at the moment as EU nurses leave the country
The latest figures on NHS vacancies reveal that there was 5418 vacancies for nurses in the NHS in the North East and Yorkshire between July and September 2019. This means that 12.6% of posts were unfilled, showing the NHS staff shortage crisis to get worse, Dr Wendy Taylor, the Liberal Democrats candidate for Newcastle East has identified from NHS statistics.
The Conservatives have presided over a staffing crisis in our health service, failing to adequately ensure the NHS has the workforce it needs to care for our loved ones.
Even worse, Boris Johnson's pledge for 50,000 new nurses isn't even true. What is true is the Conservative's manifesto commitment to introduce a nurse tax for EU workers.
Over 11,600 NHS staff from the EU have left the health service in the three years since the Brexit vote, including 4,783 nurses. The Conservatives are only going to discourage more nurses from coming to work in the UK with their manifesto pledges.
Dr Talor said : "These figures reveal just how desperately short of nurses our NHS is. For years the Conservatives have ignored the NHS staffing crisis, leaving it understaffed, under-resourced, and underfunded.
"What the Tories are proposing in this election will not only fail to solve the crisis, but in fact make things worse. The Conservative's attacks on freedom of movement and their plans to implement a nurse tax will only drive away the EU health professionals we need.
"Our NHS currently relies on the hard work of 20,000 EU nurses. To discourage EU nurses from working in the NHS when we already have a shortage, partly due to the 5000 nurses who have already left the NHS, makes no sense at all.
"Liberal Democrats will build a brighter future where the NHS has the staff it needs and patients receive the care they need. We will stop Brexit and invest in the NHS by raising £7 billion a year from a penny on income tax to build a brighter future for our health service."