Thousands of nurses and midwives hold protest in London over plans to scrap NHS bursaries

Solidarity: Protesters march through London to demonstrate against plans to axe NHS bursaries for nurses and midwives
Carl Court/Getty Images
Jamie Bullen9 January 2016

Thousands of protesters have gathered in London against Government proposals to scrap bursaries for nurses and midwives.

Demonstrators met at St Thomas's Hospital on Westminster Bridge at 12pm on Saturday before starting their journey to Downing Street.

Organised by the student nurses of King’s College London, opponents say scrapping the bursary from 2017 will mean young care professionals could face over £50,000 debt to train on a three-year degree course.

A statement on the group’s Facebook page said: “This started as a student protest but we stand in solidarity with the wider movement defending our NHS.

“We work in hospital as part of our training: we bath, feed, administer medication, tend wounds, manage extreme emotions, visit people in their homes, wear our heart on our sleeves, with a smile on our face every day that we go to work.

“We care: bringing hope to the most troubled and in support of those most in need.

“We need to learn in hospital, under supervision of good, efficient nurses and midwives but we also need to learn from research, from best practice. The government funds research, it needs to start using it.

George Osborne announced plans to replace bursaries for nursing students and other professionals with loans during the November spending review.

More than 150,000 people have signed a Government petition calling for the bursaries to be kept triggering a debate in Parliament on Monday.

The Government has argued the changes will provide a more sustainable financial model to deliver nurses and midwives for the NHS.

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