Nursing boss says profession is 'broken' as she warns retirement is a 'ticking time bomb'
A Royal College of Nursing boss has warned "nursing is broken" as the number of people going into the profession dwindles amid "disgraceful" NHS job cuts.
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Nicola Ranger told Tonight with Andrew Marr that NHS reforms will fail unless the nursing sector is improved.
"Nursing is the largest workforce in every sector, both in the health service and social care," Mrs Ranger said.
"And actually, we also know that nursing is broken and this government will fail unless it has a strong and brilliant and vibrant nursing profession."
This comes as the number of people entering the nursing profession is down by 20%, the lowest in six years, she said.
Read More: The End of International Recruitment: A Crisis Looming Over Social Care
Mrs Ranger pointed out that nursing is not an attractive career for the young.
The General Secretary said: "We've got a real retirement ticking time bomb in the future."
Many nurses are leaving the occupation as they are "not proud of the care that they are currently giving".
NHS trusts are cutting frontline clinical jobs and axing patient services to balance the books, health leaders have warned.
A survey of trust leaders by NHS Providers found clinical jobs have already gone or are earmarked for cuts, while services such as virtual wards, diabetes clinics, rehabilitation centres, talking therapies and stop-smoking services are at risk or are being scaled back.
At one NHS trust, 600 out of 1,500 job cuts are clinical roles.
Mrs Ranger said: "Sadly, particularly of the NHS in England, there's a real sense of reducing the number of clinical posts, reducing numbers directly in organisations, and people are really talking about the real concern about nurses not getting jobs.
"That would be a disgrace actually."
Migrants have been told they need to spend a decade in the UK before they can apply for citizenship and English language requirements will be increased for all routes into the UK, as ministers look to bring down net migration which reached 728,000 last year.
The PM revealed plans to link immigration status to education level, English-language ability and investment in the UK.
"We're really concerned about that," Mrs Ranger said.
"It's a real slap in the face for those international nurses that are here. We believe that without them, we would have really struggled in health and social care."
Mrs Ranger argued there are 130,000 vacancies in social care, so these migration changes will "hit hard".
She continued: "I think that's very disrespectful to the people, particularly on the health and social care system that have really, really supported us both during the pandemic and post the pandemic."
"This has not been balanced with a really strong domestic pipeline of how we're going to both recruit and retain the brilliant nurses that we have in the uk.
"It's all very well talking about immigration, but where is the domestic supply chain that's going to ensure that nursing is a really, really valued occupation for the UK population? That's what we want. That's why we need reform."