The logic is from the government that has promised 5,000 more nurses and 5,000 more doctors....

Despite that planning for training for nursing has to be five years ahead of need and doctors between eight years (the very quickest time from uni to quickest training completion, (GP and histopathologist) to fifteen years (cardiovascular surgeons and certain sub speciality.) The somewhat good news being that you still get doctors and nurses during that time, and 70% of hospital doctors are still in some form of training (foundation, core and registrar) but it cannot be sorted at the drop of a hat.

Nurses are the real issue here, and also some semi skilled healthcare workers, especially the healthcare assistants we perceive as nurses anyway. But also some allied healthcare professionals such as physios, speech & language etc.

When the nursing trade union, for genuine good intent, forced through making nursing a graduate profession, nursing degrees were suddenly on the table. It is known that academically, these are the least difficult to attain, although on the job work is a large part of it, and it isn't easy in that way.

Yet the attrition rate is high. Why? Well one reason is that nursing is promoted as a way to get a degree without the tuition fees rather than as a vocational career. Many leave after graduation.

McMusket has recently returned from India and Pakistan on behalf of a Scottish government incentive to try to fill doc vacancies.

Meanwhile, our education system simply cannot produce candidates of sufficient numbers for the extremely hard medical school journey, which precludes many would be docs and many nurses no longer have the vocational impetus. The many who do meanwhile are underpaid, undervalued and subjected to protocol led work that strips them of their ability to use their training and common sense.

Still. That isn't a UK exclusive problem. The lack of joined up thinking between Home Office and Dept of Health is. And it is a real one.