Jon Ashworth, the shadow health secretary, has pledged to reinstitute the nursing bursary if Labour come to power.
In his speech at the Labour Conference in Liverpool, Mr Ashworth made a series of promises to delegates, including bringing back the bursary, and increasing the number of nursing training places.
He said: ‘NHS staff care for us in times of most desperate need. It’s time we cared properly for staff. We will deliver fair pay now and always, based on collective bargaining. We will safeguard the rights of all NHS and social care staff from the EU and end hostile restrictions on international recruitment. And, we will expand training places and bring back the bursary too.’
He opened his speech by thanking the ‘nurses, the midwives, the surgeons, the doctors, the dentists, the junior doctors; thank the paramedics, the patient transport staff, the psychiatrists, the health visitors, school nurses, the OTs, the ODPs; thank the pharmacists, the pathologists, the radiologists, the lab technicians. Thank the porters, the cleaners, the catering staff, the assistants, the clerks and medical secretaries.’
He also stated that Labour will ‘invest in general practice, we’ll invest to prepare our NHS for winter, we’ll establish a National Care Service and to ensure we have the most up to date lifesaving technology and equipment we’ll invest £10 billion extra in infrastructure too.’