North East patients could be worst hit by scrapped bursaries for nurses
The Department of Health announced it was scrapping bursaries for healthcare students last week, replacing them instead with a loans system.
The North East could face a shortage of nurses and midwives, following the governments decision to scrap bursaries.
The Department of Health announced last week that it plans to remove the bursary system and instead bring in a loans system for student nurses, midwives and health professionals.
They did state however that some tuition and maintenance bursaries will be offered to a 'capped number' of students starting in 2017-18.
It reiterated that students planning to undertake nursing, midwifery and allied health professional subjects as a second degree would be able to access loans on the same terms as students studying for a first degree.
However there's concerns that patients in our region could be hit by a nurse shortage, as people can no longer afford to train without a bursary.
Greg Canning, Senior Regional Officer from the Royal College of Nursing says: "We're very worried about what that means for students in North East universities.
"Bursaries are a vital financial support that help nursing students from a wide-range of social and economic backgrounds to go on and be nurses of the future.
"Without that essential financial support many nurses would never have been able to complete a degree.
"So the RCN is very concerned about what that means for the future of the NHS and above all, the future of patient care.
"We already have a recruitment crisis in nursing, this really jeopardises the entire future of the NHS.
"As well, student nurses aren't like any other students.
"50% of their time is spent working directly with patients and they have a longer academic year."
19-year-old Sophie Bulmer from Durham is training to be a nurse.
She says: "Even with the bursery they still struggle to live on the amount they receive.
"There's a lot of mature students with children and they find it really hard.
"It makes a big difference because it's your living costs.
"You work full-time as well as being at university and you don't get paid for placement.
"So it helps towards overall living.
"You very rarely get time off, it's not like normal university where would have all summer until September.
"The time you are off, you want to spent at home."