Bursary or Bust march

The government’s to scrap NHS bursaries will leave student nurses, midwives and other health professionals with over £52,000 worth of debt. The fear of debt will discourage many people from becoming healthcare profesionals, exacerbating the current recruitment crisis. This will have disatrous repercussions for patient safety.

UNISON and the NUS have commissioned a report by London Economics which shows that removing the bursary will:

• Put thousands of healthcare students and graduates into debt.
• Reduce the number of people taking up healthcare places in higher education by as many as 2000.
• Cause a fall in income for Higher education institutions of between £55m to £77m per student intake.
• Lead to a significant increase in staff shortages in the NHS which will increase dependancy on agency and overseas staff. The costs associated with this could wipe out all the potential savings the government claims removing the bursary will make.

You can read the report in full here.