[lettie]

[quote=Gayle• In the NHS there are 19,300 more doctors and over 77,500 more nurses working with modern equipment, giving faster access to more people, all free at the point of need.
quote]

I do think that there is a certain amount of manipulation of these figures. According to the NMC's register (nursing and midwifery council), this figure does not exist.

Having studied the NMC's register I can tell you that in March 1996 there were 645,011 registered nurses, midwives and health visitors in the UK.

In March 2005 (the latest available figure) there were 672,897 registered nurses, midwives and public health nurses on the register.

This means that we have had an actual increase of 27,886 registered practitioners.

Of those, somewhere between 16-17,000 actually practice abroad, Aus, NZ, Hong Kong, USA etc.... so in real terms we have had an increase in registrations of 10-11,000.

Bear in mind that many of these practitioners will work part time, many more registrants do not practice at all due to inability to get a job. If you have no practical experience as a qualified nurse or midwife then you become ineligable to re-register.

Everyone who works within the NHS knows that these figures have been manipulated beyond all truth. The paltry increase in nursing staff is undermined by the vast increase in immigrants, many of whom need healthcare. The ageing population means that we need to provide more nursing care as does the increasing birthrate.

The NMC register shows that the majority of our practitioners are in the 40-50 age group with a very small percentage being under 25. This may be because newly qualified (younger) staff are struggling to get jobs and therefore end up leaving the profession. This is going to have serious effects on future healthcare as these older, more experienced professionals will all be retiring within a few years of each other and there will be nobody to replace them. For those of us who work within the nursing professions......... we are already seeing this happen..