"Our analysis found that there was a statistically significant relationship between spending on agency staff – and the size of acute trusts' financial deficits. "
...National Audit Office

THE SEVERITY OF THE SITUATION NEEDS A NEW SOLUTION

Before the pandemic, more nurses were leaving the NHS than joining. Consequently empty posts are being filled by locum nurses, with double the costs over the last four years as NHS hospitals breach hourly pay limits for locum staff.

The RCN cite in excess of 50,000 full-time vacant positions, an increase of more than 10% in a year. The DoH recently announced 10,000 extra training places in 2020, for nurses and health care professionals but they will not be in post until 2024, leaving a 40,000 shortfall assuming the attrition rate does not increase further.

Attracting nurses from overseas, using the traditional approach to recruitment, has not provided the quantity of nurses required due principally to an inability to help suitability qualified nurses to meet the entry requirements. Ineffective training and the high costs incurred in attaining either an IELTS or OET qualification prevent many, especially vocationally motivated, nurses from applying.

The Orchid Institute of Applied Sciences has developed a programme to overcome directly all of the constraints, from cultural to financial, thereby attracting the more suited nurses and accelerating their deployment to the UK.

The Institute is not seeking a dependent supplier relationship. Instead, providing the NHS with full support, drawing from best practice, to ensure both the quantity and quality of nursing staff required can be recruited at realistic costs.