7,000 NHS frontline staff have been made redundant since the election and there are 7,500 fewer nurses in training over same period, research shows.

A Labour Freedom of Information request to the Department of Health reveals that 7,060 NHS frontline staff have been made redundant since 2010/11. Doctors, nurses and their support staff have been lost on David Cameron’s watch, despite his pledge to protect the frontline.

Meanwhile, the Department has also disclosed in a Ministerial response to a Labour Written Parliamentary Question that the number of nurse training places over the same period has fallen by a total of 7,435.

Andrew Gwynne MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, said:

“With youth unemployment so high, the Government should be bringing on the next generation of nurses. Instead, Ministers are cutting trainee nurse places at home and spending millions on overseas recruitment.

“David Cameron’s short-sighted plans are bad for the NHS and bad for our economy. He is making experienced nurses redundant, leaving wards short-staffed and storing up future staff shortages too.

“The figures are devastating for the Government. They reveal the hollow truth behind the pledge to protect the NHS frontline. It is more proof you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.”

Front-line redundancies

Based on these classifications the Department of Health estimate that 7060 frontline staff have been made redundant since 2010/11:

For the purposes of this question the “frontline” includes staff working in the following areas:

1)    Professionally Qualified Clinical Staff

1. Hospital & Community Health Service Doctors
2. Qualified or Registered Nurses (including Midwives & Health Visitors)
3. Qualified Scientific, Therapeutic & Technical staff
4. Qualified Ambulance Staff

2)    Support to Clinical Staff

1. Support to Doctors & Nursing Staff
2. Support to Scientific, Therapeutic and Technical Staff
3. Support to Ambulance Staff

Staff working in an “Infrastructure Support” role have been excluded. This means, that the figure does not include managers. Infrastructure support includes the following:

• Managers
• Senior Managers
• Central Functions
• Hotel, Property & Estates
• Other Staff or Staff of Unknown Classification

The figures above are based on NHS data as recorded in the ‘Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Data Warehouse’ and supplied to the Department of Health.

Falling nurse training places:

Source: Parliamentary Question response