BBC report “NHS 'haemorrhaging' nurses as 33,000 leave each year”

By Dave Chaplin

The BBC reported today about the mass exodus of Nursing staff from NHS England. The report highlighted that for the first time in history there are more nurses leaving the NHS than are joining. 

Many key reasons are listed in the article by Nick Triggle but in my opinion they failed to list one crucial point. The introduction of the off-payroll IR35 Reforms that effectively cut pay by 20-25% overnight for locum nurses (and doctors). The blanket rules that were applied last year by HMRC regarding their employment status generated a huge disincentive for locum workers to continue to provide their services to the NHS.

Many locums have moved to the private sector, have moved abroad, or left nursing altogether which is a key factors contributing to the apparent meltdown in our NHS.

HMRC were unanimously warned this would happen by market stakeholders, with their planned reforms widely criticised as unworkable. Yet they ignored them, and bulldozed ahead anyway. Subsequently, a large part of the mess in the NHS is now directly attributable to them.

HMRC continue to claim that they have seen no evidence that locums have left the sector as a result of the reforms. This is not surprising, considering the impact research they commissioned strictly ruled out asking agencies and locums how they were impacted by the reforms. It’s certainly hard to see the light when one is blindfolded.

Surely Government now needs to suspend these calamitous reforms to relieve some pressure on the NHS whilst a full proper investigation into the effects is conducted?

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