SOMEONE, it seems, has got their sums wrong. Not long ago, the NHS was crying out for new nurses. Now, says Nursing Times (Aug 30), some of those who were tempted into training by the Government’s recruitment drive find themselves unemployed.

The reasons why newly qualified nurses have gone from gold dust to excess baggage are complex, but are probably linked to NHS employers tightening their belts.

As a result, many are leaving posts unfilled and are closing wards as they struggle to rein in costs. Hampshire and Isle of Wight Strategic Health Authority, for example, which faces a £40 million deficit, plans to cut staff costs by 5 per cent by April.

The problem of nursing shortages seems to have “disappeared”, says the journal, largely as a result of overseas recruitment. But unions claim that overseas nurses get stuck in low-grade posts, often because trusts prefer to leave them there to keep pay and training costs low. Jobs for homegrown nurses are consequently hard to find, driving some newly qualified staff to seek work in supermarkets, fast-food outlets or as healthcare assistants.

And the assertion by Nursing Times that UK nurses may be lured to a better life overseas is supported by Business Day (Aug 31), a South African newspaper (www.businessday.co.za). It says that half of all nursing posts in the country are currently unfilled. To help plug the gaps, the South African Government is planning to reopen some of the nursing colleges it closed in the 1990s.

But it’s not only nurses who face an uncertain future. Hospital Doctor (Sept 1) says that many junior medics are failing to find work. One, “a high-flying graduate” with a research prize to his name, has gone to work in New Zealand after receiving nearly 80 job rejections in the UK.

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