Sir Chope claims that nurses are trained at “great public expense”.
A Conservative MP has suggested that nurses who undertake their training inside the NHS and then leave for abroad or the private sector should be forced to repay the cost of their training.
During a debate in the House of Commons, Sir Christopher Chope told fellow MPs that nurses and other healthcare professionals should be forced to “back their dues” if they leave the NHS after training.
Sir Chope claimed that nurses are trained at “great public expense”.
He added, “I am not saying it should be made conditional upon getting help with your development as a professional and going to university that when you graduate you must be forced to work for a particular employer or the NHS.
“But if you are going to not work for the NHS then I think you should have a system similar to what they have in the United States where you are expected to pay back some of the costs of that training.”
Over £50,000 in student debt.
Several student nurses took to social media to explain that they are often used as “free labour” while training. Sir Chope’s comments come despite the NHS bursary system being scrapped in 2017 by the then Conservative Chancellor Geroge Osbourne.
Student healthcare professionals pay around £9,000 per year for tuition fees, meaning some graduate nurses can qualify with over £50,000 in student debt. In stark contrast, student nurses in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland remain exempt from tuition fees.
A spokesperson for the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) warned “misplaced and misguided” comments such as this “show how little understanding there is of the workforce crisis in the NHS”.
Lead organiser for Nurses United UK Anthony Johnson added, “It is pretty simple economics: if you have a bunch of nursing posts vacant, you need to raise salaries to make it attractive enough for people to want to do them. Nurses understand this. NHS managers understand this.”
Mr Johnson questioned, “why can’t an MP whose family spent tens of thousands on private school understand this?”
