Minister told to apologise for saying student nurses 'don't provide a service'

A student nurse has called on the care minister to apologise after saying that NHS workers like her are ‘supernumerary’ and ‘are not deemed to be providing a service’ during the pandemic.

Mum-of-two Jessica Collins, 27, wrote to her local MP Tom Pursglove over the treatment of student nurses during the coronavirus pandemic, who face huge debt despite risking their lives on the frontline. Ms Collins, from Northamptonshire, has long been campaigning to cancel the debt student nurses have amassed during their training after nursing bursaries were axed from 2017.

When the MP relayed the concerns to Care Minister Helen Whately, she responded saying: ‘The Government has no plans to introduce a scheme that will backdate the offer for students who completed courses in earlier years.

‘Student nurses in training are supernumerary and are not deemed to be providing a service. They are required to undertake 2,300 hours of clinical practice to learn the skills necessary for entry to the workforce.

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‘Whilst they may be performing limited clinical duties, this is under close supervision and they are not being paid to staff hospitals.’

Ms Collins, who will graduate in £60,000 of debt this September, opted in to work on the frontline of the coronavirus pandemic in the paediatric A&E department of Peterborough City hospital.

The mother, who is one of many students who trained between 2017 and 2020 without any bursary, said the efforts of student nurses have been crucial during the pandemic.

Ms Collins told Good Morning Britain: ‘I think surplus to requirements can be deemed in different ways, but I think everybody knows the pressure that the NHS has been under for a long time now.

‘So, I think it’s safe to say that as students very often we’re not surplus to requirements and even though we are technically “supernumerary”, we’re very much counted as help and without that help there would be a lot of departments that would definitely struggle.’

Ms Collins, who signed a six-month contract to help care for children during the pandemic, said that student nurses in her hospital are ‘not actually deemed supernumerary’.

She continued: ‘We are counted as part of the workforce and we’re just doing the same things really – we’re working alongside our other qualified professionals, we’re delivering care to the patients that come through those doors, we’re taking our own patients which is something that we often to do, we have to do in order to be signed off.

‘So, I think there’s a lot of loopholes that have been found here to put us in this bracket that the government want us to be in.’

During the morning ITV programme Susanna Reid said that a government minister was invited to comment on the matter on the programme but declined. The Department for Health and Social Care sent a written statement instead.

But in a furious outburst, Piers Morgan said he is banning ‘stupid’ government statements and refused to listen to it.

Ms Collins also told the Mirror that Ms Whateley’s comments upset a lot of nurses who ‘already feel undervalued’ and to receive the response in writing is ‘awful’.

She said: ‘I think you would only need to work one shift with us to see how we’re providing care for patients.

‘We are under exactly the same pressures, we’re under exactly the same stresses.

‘And the way she’s worded that just seems un-empathetic and so callous.’

In September this year, all nursing students in England are set to receive a £5,000-a-year maintenance grant, others in certain sectors where there is a shortage of nurses will receive another £3,000.

Ms Collins launched a petition last year that has gained more than 200,000 signatures calling for the debt of student nurses who trained between 2017 and 2020 to be written off.

Many have amassed tens of thousands in debt after paying the full £9250 a year for tuition fees, while many have worked long hours on placement for free while juggling studying as part of their course, said Ms Collins. All students nurses have to complete 2,300 clinical practice hours before qualifying.

Ms Collins is set to have a virtual meeting with the Royal College of Nursing Union along with Ms Whateley next week.

In a statement issued to ITV News, Ms Whately said: ‘The whole country is grateful to student nurses for their heroic work on the NHS frontline during this unprecedented global pandemic.

‘Supernumerary status for student nurses is a technical definition created to ensure they have the space and time to learn, and it is widely supported across the nursing profession.

‘There is a strong financial aid package for nurses and going forwards we have introduced even further support for nursing, midwifery and many allied health profession students consisting of a £5,000 to £8,000 grant to help with maintenance and associated study costs, which does not need to be paid back.’

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