THE UK government has plans to recruit 50,000 more nurses and 6,000 more doctors in general practice by 2025.
Nurse numbers has increased by 8,570 in 2019, an official statement released on Thursday (27) said.
Since 2010, there have been increases of more than 20,000 more doctors,
18,500 more nurses, midwives and health visitors, 4,900 more paramedics, it said.
The additional staff will be supported by £33.9 billion of funding a year for the NHS by 2024 to 2025.
Health and Social Care Secretary Matt Hancock said: “As Health Secretary, I’m determined to deliver on our commitment to have 50,000 more nurses in the NHS.
So I’m delighted that figures out today show that alongside a reduction in vacancies and an increase in the number of GPs, we’ve got record numbers of nurses working in our NHS – up by over 8,000 on the same time last year.”
Student nurses, midwives and many allied health professionals such as paramedics on courses from September, will get support of at least £5,000 a year to help with their living costs.
The latest UCAS statistics show the number of nursing applicants to English universities has risen for the second year.
There have been 35,960 applicants to nursing and midwifery courses at English universities in 2020 – a 6% rise compared to 2019.
Forsyth was awarded a CBE for services to literature in 1997Getty Images
