Exactly a week after Cardiff University confirmed plans to cut 400 jobs and to axe their nursing course, the Welsh Labour Government’s Health Secretary gave an oral statement in the Senedd confirming funding for “additional international recruitment”.
The Welsh Labour Government’s plans for additional recruitment includes a new pilot programme to recruit “internationally educated nurses”.
Welsh Conservative, James Evans MS has sent a letter to the Health Minister criticising the plans and calling for the new funding to be used to train nurses in Wales.
Commenting, Welsh Conservative Shadow Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care, James Evans MS said:
“The Welsh Labour Government’s model for NHS recruitment is completely unsustainable.
“We have ever-increasing, record-high NHS waiting lists, a workforce crisis and a reliance on nurses from overseas. Yet Labour ministers are allowing Wales’ biggest university’s nursing course to be cut. This is the wrong approach.
“I can see the reasons to try to fill vacancies by recruiting from abroad in the short term, but this is not a long-term solution to address nursing shortages across Wales. We should be training more home-grown nurses and not rely solely on foreign recruits.”
