DEBT - FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE
On the 17th July this year [2017], new nursing, midwifery and other health students such as occupational therapists and physiotherapists had their NHS bursaries stopped. Nurses no longer receive NHS bursaries to cover their tuition fees. Instead, they will have to apply for student loans.The Tories claim ending the bursaries will free up about £800m a year to create additional nursing roles by 2020. But removing the NHS bursary simply deepens the nursing recruitment crisis.
40,000 nursing posts are currently unfilled, and ending the Nurse bursary scheme will stop students from working class and mature backgrounds applying to train. Nursing students already face very different challenges from students studying other disciplines.
TORY WORK ETHIC - WORK FOR NOTHING
For example, trainee Nurses have little time to do paid work to cover their living costs at university as they are required to undertake unpaid clinical placements during non-term time. More than 20 charities, medical and professional bodies and trade unions have called ending the bursary an “untested gamble”.MORE AUSTERITY LIES
The NHS Bursary Scheme was previously funded by Health Education England (HEE), which itself is funded by the government - i.e. by you and me as taxpayers.
THE OLD 'UNAFORDABLE' CHESTNUT
The number of nurse training places available each year was limited to how much they could afford to fund. The Tories claim this number wasn’t enough to supply the quantity of nurses needed and the number couldn’t be increased because of 'constraints on government spending'. The Department of Health (DoH) state this is "a result of ongoing government policy to reduce the national budget deficit" [National debt] - but this is contrary to the Tory manifesto of ring-fencing NHS spending.WE WANT TO BUT......
The Tories claim they wanted to increase the number of places available, but were unable to do so with the money available. So rather than requesting more money be made available to recruit more nurses, they STOPPED the bursary: thereby turning it into a debt (loan).
LOANS AND DEBT is a SYSTEM THAT ENSLAVES
Starting out life with student debt only adds to the burden of stress. Now add to the mix a mortgage and perhaps a car on finance, and "every employer would love to employ someone with such high debts because they won't cause any trouble" (Tony Benn 2008 Question Time TV panel show - see link below).LINKS/REFERENCES
https://www.theguardian.com/society/2017/jul/31/as-the-nhs-bursary-ends-would-you-still-train-to-be-a-nurse-or-midwife-today
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