Today I have been listening to Any Questions on Radio Four using the Radioplayer function and have heard an interesting error by the UKIP MEP David Coburn where he said that for years that neither the Conservative nor Labour governments have trained enough doctors or nurses in the health service citing that we are stealing those from abroad.
He is wrong, training numbers have been cut, against the advice of the BMA, but that is not the reason that the numbers of healthcare professionals in the health service have fallen. It is because, doctors and nurses have left the NHS. Doctors, once trained have become disillusioned with the NHS and political interference and leave. The UK trains enough doctors, but once these doctors have qualified, after they become consultants or GP's (i.e. after the five year post graduation stay in most cases) many leave to work in Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the Middle East. As for nurses, even when we import them, many do not stay in the NHS.
The bottom line is while there are some ideas to improve the NHS, unless staff are looked after properly, there will be few people to work in it.
