How's nursing in the UK? - Page 2

Well, next election is this year or next year! I know my DH is voting Labour and wouldn't give a second thought to any other party else except the Green party. Talking about US health care reform, it's scary to see how your government can slowly dismantle your own health care system...DH says that if the Conservatives could get away with it, they'd completely do away with the NHS. So sad.

I don't think next election will be until 2015 and I think current government will hold on as long as they can. The NHS was going downhill when the Labour government was in, I was working there then in fact I would say the NHS has been going downhill decades regardless on who was in. When I did my training back in the middle 80's was normal to see 2-3 RN and 1 EN (LPN) on days with care workers assisting by the time I qualified in 88 it had dropped down to 1-2 RN and 1 EN on days with same amount of acute patients (28 patients)

I didn't realize things were so bad. Sounds like a lot of things need to change.

BBC News - London NHS spends £13m on public relations

There was also a feature on BBC news recently saying that the NHS is being forced to recruit overseas nurses, mainly from Portugal, as there is such a shortage of UK nurses.
BBC News - West Suffolk Hospital recruits nurses in Portugal


I find that very hard to believe. When i was in the UK a few months ago, there was a A&E band 5 being advertised in the hospital I worked agency, and they had over 80 applicants that met the criteria. Some were even experiences band 6 and 7s.
I personally know of some very capable A&E nurses who are working in pubs and restaurants until they can find jobs again.

So what on earth is going on when there are such huge discrepancies between what I see for myself and what the BBC says?