It is appalling that there are now 43,000 nursing vacancies in England. In Leicester, the nurse vacancy rate has increased from 10.8% in July 2017 to 13.6% in July 2019, which is higher than the national average.

The Royal College of Nursing says applications for nursing courses have plummeted by a third since the Tories scrapped the student nurse bursary and that the failure to recruit enough nurses is putting patient care at risk.

In order to fix the damage done by the Tories, Labour will bring back the NHS student nurse bursary. We will also deliver an extra 4,800 health visitors and school nurses, and legislate for safe staffing levels across the NHS.