SOUTH Dorset MP Richard Drax told the House of Commons that England is “facing a desperate shortage of nurses.”

Speaking during an adjournment debate he had called on the training of nurses, Mr Drax said that he had been moved to action by the plight of Portland Hospital, where, due to a critical shortage of nurses, “the beds at the island’s much-loved community hospital have been closed.”

Mr Drax said the Royal College of Nursing had calculated that there are 40,000 nursing vacancies in England alone, equating to “an eleven per cent vacancy rate – with learning disability and mental health nursing most affected.”

While temporary bank and agency staff could plug the gaps, Mr Drax said Health Education England estimated that one per cent remained permanently unfilled.

Meanwhile, costs soared, he added, citing a Freedom of Information request by the Open University in January 2018, which “revealed that if the hours worked by temporary staff were instead covered by regular nurses the NHS could save as much as £560 million a year.”

While praising the multiple routes into nurse training, which now include Registered Nurses, Nursing Associates, Nursing Apprenticeships and the new, Nurse First postgraduate courses, Mr Drax said that recruitment had suffered a severe own goal when bursaries for student nurses were withdrawn, requiring them to apply for student loans.

“Significantly, since the bursary was removed, the number of applications for nursing through UCAS has fallen by a third since March 2016," he said.

“While the Department of Health says there are 52,000 nurses in training - more than ever before – those accepted onto courses is still down by 9.3 per cent in England (and 5.8 per cent in the UK).”

“This threatens the pipeline of new nursing talent and at the very least, should have been anticipated.”

At the same time, he said, nurses were leaving the profession due to “relentless pressures” and feeling that their “professional registrations were at risk because they were struggling to cope with demand”.

He added: “What happened in Portland must be happening to a greater or lesser degree across the country.

“We must train more nurses and keep them. That means working out how many we need long before we need them and ensuring that we can afford them, while assuring them of decent pay and conditions and access to proper continuing professional development. They are a vital pillar of the NHS without whom the entire edifice will crumble.”