NHS long-term damage warning as graduates still without jobs

Earlier this month Wales’s Health Minister Mabon ap Gwynfor held a summit with health bosses, universities and professional bodies.

A Welsh government spokesperson said it was “to find immediate solutions and prevent this from happening again and asked for actions from the summit to be rolled out nationally”.

They said: “We know how disappointing it is for this year’s nursing, midwifery and paramedics graduates who haven’t secured the roles they worked so hard for.

“We have asked Health Education and Improvement Wales to coordinate a national support offer, including a single point of access to ensure graduates remain supported and connected to emerging employment opportunities.”

The Royal College of Paramedics said it expected to see similar recruitment freezes across the UK later this year.

Earlier this year, the Royal College of Midwives said a survey of newly qualified midwives across all four nations found about a third had not secured a permanent role.

Buchan said although it was “not fair to call it a national problem at the moment”, current workforce projections and data suggested it was likely to remain an issue requiring “policy responses across all four UK nations”.

“Need is not being met, but the funding is not there to increase the workforce,” he said.

The Department of Health and Social Care, has introduced a “Graduate Guarantee” for newly qualified nurses and midwives in England, after concerns there were 4,000 more nursing and midwifery graduates than vacancies.

The Scottish government said it was developing an NHS job guarantee to all medicine, dentistry, nursing and other NHS profession graduates in Scotland.