'Indefensible' cuts to uni's courses slammed by staff and union leaders

NURSING TRAINING AXE 'COMES AT WORST TIME'

- By JOSHUA HARTLEY [e-mail]

THE University of Nottingham’s plan to end two nursing courses has been slammed by critics who say it comes at the worst time for the county's struggling healthcare services.

The university is a significant provider of new recruits to both Nottinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust - which has been ordered to improve following paranoid schizophrenic Valdo Calocane's killings in 2023 - and Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust - which is currently under intense scrutiny from senior midwife Donna Ockenden’s review into baby deaths and injuries.

The university has defended its “really difficult” decision to freeze intakes to some courses, claiming the controversial action was a response to the Government's call for universities to specialise as well as an attempt counter rising costs and a proposed levy on international students.

But staff and unions have warned that the plan to pull back from training nurses will have profound consequences, compounding serious problems with healthcare in Nottinghamshire.

Ella Guerin, University and College Union (UCU) representative for the school of health sciences, claimed the region’s cash-strapped and heavily criticised NHS trusts would suffer greatly from missing out on University of Nottingham-trained nurses.

“Most of our students, when they graduate, will stay locally,” said Ms Guerin, who moved to Nottingham to study and never left.

The mental health and children’s nursing courses were “massive feeders’ for Nottinghamshire Healthcare, which runs the region’s mental care, and Nottingham University Hospitals, which runs the Queen’s Medical Centre and City Hospital, she explained.