Quote Originally Posted by swaledale View Post
So the shortage of nurses (around 50,000 vacancies) has absolutely nothing to do with Tory government then? You know cutting the financial assistance for training, worsening their salaries and working conditions? I know a number of medical staff who have left the NHs, because they were fed up by May and Hunt's high handed unsympathetic handling of their issues.

Then its clear from the effects of Covid-19 and where it has hit hardest that this and previous Tory governments austerity policies, lack of a cohesive and meaningful social care and health policies, cutbacks in local authorities and other public services have all contributed to a worse situation than it would have been.

So its wrong to say the lack of staffing is down to absenteeism, it isn't its down to lack of qualified, experienced medical staff, I mean even this government admitted it was around 50,000 nurses short!!
I agree to a certain point Swale, but you would assume that the government knew the staffing levels when making the decision to build the Nightingales and thought that there would be enough staff. What they didn't anticipate was the very high level of absenteeism in the NHS, whilst the pandemic was on. What I have been told is that in one department at Heartlands hospital there are a number of staff falsely staying off work and if this is replicated throughout the NHS, this would explain the shortage of staff for the Nightingales.

Although, the media would never dare to investigate anything against NHS staff. In an interview today, a nurses leader said that her members had all been rushed off their feet since March, which is simply not true. Throughout the summer hospitals were begging people not to avoid going to A&E. I know from personal experience and that of a number of friends, including the last few days, that many departments of our local hospitals are half empty with many nurses standing around with not a lot to do. Surely, spare staff on these non covid wards could be used in the Nightingales. The organisation at local level seems to be very poor. Only today, I heard of a local nurse who recently left the service for a 'better' post, only to realise she missed the work at Heartlands and applied to return to her old post, she's still waiting a reply six weeks later.