Boris said we have 13,000 extra nurses???!

[missyB1]

Was it just me who heard that in his statement last night? Did I mishear him? I was gobsmacked! Im sure he said we have 13,000 extra nurses than we had last year. Outright lie or massaging the figures somehow? Because call me cynical but I find it hard to believe.

I wonder how many nurses qualify every year? Plus the new nurses from over seas. I could imagine we have 13,000 new nurses but I would bet my bottom dollar that he has done something like not subtracted the number of nurses who have left the profession or the U.K. to nurse in another country.

I'm a nurse, it certainly doesn't feel like we have 13000 more staff

What he actually said was "we’ve got 13,000 more nurses now than last year". How would that even be be possible, even if the money was there for them?

Right I’ve been doing some digging. Matt Hancock apparently also claims there are thousands of extra Doctors, turns out he was counting medical students!! I suspect Bojo is counting students and HCAs.

He will be counting students, nursing associates and any nurses returning to practice (like when they did the call for recently retired nurses to return in March)

@boarboar

He will be counting students, nursing associates and any nurses returning to practice (like when they did the call for recently retired nurses to return in March)

I think nurses returning should be counted (although how many will be FT?) but even if he is counting students etc, why would there be more now than there were last year?

I’m definitely smelling BS somewhere. I’d love him to tell us how he came about that number!

LOL it will be the same as last time MORE = any increase in any countable way without deducting those that have left...

Trouble is I worry that people actually believe this bullshit

Just googled nmc registration data report

716,607 nurses , midwifes, nurse associate on register (March 2020).

698, 237 (March 2019) = 18,370

🤷🏻‍♀️

www.nmc.org.uk/about-us/reports-and-accounts/registration-statistics/

Doesn't mean the are working though and even if working doesn't mean working full time. Just means there are 18k more registered...

Would be better to know FTE equivalent of nurse and midwifes employed by NHS...

Also when people leave they don't deregister do they? Presumably they let it expire on annual renewal?

None of the statements about numbers or most other things made by that man is anything other than political exaggeration and manipulation. Why would this one be any different?!

Trouble is I worry that people actually believe this bullshit

Sadly, yes. See also, Brexit.

Boris says a lot of "things"....

Over 10,000 final year students 'opted in' for their final placement (including midwives as well), I guess maybe he is (wrongly) including those? They will now have their pins, assuming they passed their course, and as far as I know current third year students don't have the same chance as it's not coinciding with their final placement. Therefore now they are just part of the normal ebb and flow of new nurses joining the workforce after graduation, and those retiring etc. Wasn't it around 6000 who rejoined following the government plea as well, I guess you could use those figures and then add a few more who may have genuinely started new jobs in excess of the routine joiners, but I agree it's misleading and no way are there 13,000 new nurses on top of the regular numbers.

@missyB1

Right I’ve been doing some digging. Matt Hancock apparently also claims there are thousands of extra Doctors, turns out he was counting medical students!! I suspect Bojo is counting students and HCAs.

Yes. The government is basically lying and skewing statistics left right and centre. But they're telling the truth about Covid, don't worry

He'll write it on the side of a bus next.

I'm in a team of 9 specialist nurses. 3 have been at home shielding since March, no extra staff offered. Cannot fathom where that number has come from 🤬

I’m a retired nurse who re-registered in March. I’m still waiting for a placement (was given one of the Nightingales to work in, then they said I couldn’t because I’m a diabetic).

So they’ll count me as one of the 13,000 but I’ve not worked at all.

@Potionqueen - No, they don't count you as one of the 13,000 (assuming you are not being paid).

The figures come from the NHS workforce statistics which are extracted from the NHS payroll system. They should therefore be an accurate reflection of the number of staff being paid by the NHS.

As of July (the most recent figures available) there were 301,836.36 FTE nurses and health visitors. The equivalent figure for July 2019 was 288,404.96. So the number of FTEs has gone up by over 13,400.

If, instead of looking at FTEs, we look at the actual number of nurses and health visitors, that has gone up from 323,810 to 337,931 over the same period, an increase of over 14,100.

Both figures represent growth of around 4.5%. So, whilst the raw number sounds impressive, it doesn't mean your local hospital has a flood of new staff. For example, the nearest hospital to me employs around 350 nurses so, if it is in line with the national average, it would now have 15 or 16 more nurses than it did this time last year, which works out at less than 1 per ward.

Re Matt Hancock, it is claimed on social media that, when he claimed 7,810 more doctors working in the NHS, this included unqualified medical students and that, if you removed these, the number of doctors has gone down. This claim is false.

The figure included no unqualified medical students at all. It did, however, include 1,948 doctors who are either on their first year of foundation training (which means they are fully qualified although, in normal circumstances, they would not be able to register with GMC until they had completed their first year) or who are final year graduates who have been allowed to fast-track into foundation training due to the epidemic (again, fully qualified). This was acknowledged in the government's press release. Even if we exclude all these doctors, the number has still gone up by 5,862 - a 6% increase.

Boris has certainly quoted some dodgy statistics in the past as have many other politicians of all political colours, but on this occasion he is correct.