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The NHS will need to double the number of nurses it recruits if it is to maintain current staffing levels, a union has warned.
Despite a recruitment push, thousands of nurses are leaving the health service every year out of dissatisfaction with working conditions, the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) said.
In the past year, 20,000 UK trained nurses have been recruited with another 12,000 coming in from overseas. However, 50,000 nurses have left or retired.
If, as predicted, this annual shortfall rises to 25,000 in the coming years, 66,000 new recruits a year would be needed just to keep the workforce constant – double the current number.
The RCN report, entitled UK Nursing Labour Market, said nurses were leaving the profession because of inflexible working hours, fear of violence and changes to the pension scheme.
The report said nurses from abroad made up 45 per cent of NHS recruitment since 2001.
It added that the level of new entrants from the UK had dropped in 1997/8 due to reductions in funding for students but had steadily increased since then.
Dr Beverly Malone, chief executive of the RCN, said the Government not only had to concentrate on bringing in more nurses but in keeping them in as well.
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