News alert / Analysis highlights threat of nursing exodus

More than half of 11,000 nurses taking part in a survey commissioned by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) are likely or very likely to quit their jobs in the next five years due to low pay and cost of living pressures. The analysis added that ‘severe’ real-terms cuts to NHS wages since 2010/11 effectively mean that hundreds of thousands of nurses are working five days a month for free, as one quarter has been cut from pay packets in the past decade. The RCN also discovered that more than two thirds of nurses said they had rationed gas and electricity during the most recent winter, and almost half said financial pressures were having a ‘considerable impact’ on their mental health. Citing these hardships, the RCN said that it had asked the NHS Pay Review Body for a ‘substantial and above inflation’ pay rise.