Nurses are being replaced with lower-paid and less qualified healthcare assistants a Freedom of Information request has revealed. 

The Guardian report:

The head of the Royal College of Nursing has warned of a major health risk to patients as it emerged that 5,000 nurses have left the NHS since the coalition government came to power, while nearly 6,000 lower-paid and less well-qualified healthcare assistants have been taken on since 2010.

The figures fuelled fears that cheap labour is being sought to plug holes in services.

Earlier this month the Care Quality Commission announced that one in ten hospital services it had inspected were failing to meet the standard on adequate staffing levels.

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Matthew Burgess
http://www.mattburgess.co
I am a journalist and author. I am a journalist at the UK edition of WIRED magazine. In 2015, my first book Freedom of Information: A Practical Guide for UK Journalists, was published. My second book Reed Hastings: Building Netflix, was published in March 2020. I created FOI Directory in 2012 and have maintained it in my spare time ever since.