UK cut health aid to vulnerable nations while hiring their nurses, research finds Royal College of Nursing says Labour has a duty to fix health ‘double whammy’ by raising aid and funding for UK nursing.
The Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which carried out the research, said Labour had a “duty to fix” aid cuts imposed by the previous government, and to work on increasing the UK’s domestic supply of nurses.
The UK cut health aid to some of the world’s vulnerable countries at the same time as recruiting thousands of their nurses, in a “double whammy” for fragile health systems, new analysis has found.
“By maintaining the aid target at a lowly 0.5% of GNI, the UK is failing to uphold its international duties, effectively worsening chronic nursing workforce shortages in some of the most under-resourced healthcare systems in the world.
Prof Nicola Ranger, RCN general secretary and chief executive, said: “Cuts to aid may have been the previous government’s idea, but it is now this government’s duty to fix it.
