Nurses to become ‘surgical care practitioners’

Nurses will attend a two-year course to become ‘surgical care practitioners’, with the ability to perform procedures such as removing hernias, benign cysts and some skin cancers.

According to the Daily Mail, hose who qualify will also be able to assist during major surgeries such as heart bypasses and hip and knee replacements in a bid to reduce waiting times for NHS patients in increasingly busy hospitals.

Surgeons currently undergo up to 16 years of training, while a surgical care practitioner is likely to have completed a three-year degree as a nurse before the two-year course. Those qualifying will also own an average of £50,000 a year, roughly twice the average nursing salary of £25,000 a year.

Critics have been quick to label the proposals, which are due to be published in the NHS’s People Plan, unveiled next month, as only a ‘sticking plaster solution’ on the serious staffing crisis within the NHS.

There are already 800 surgical care practitioners working in hospitals in the UK, but leading surgeons say there will need to be ‘thousands’ before the difference to waiting times is felt.

An NHS spokesman said: “The NHS is supporting the government to deliver its pledge to deliver 50,000 more nurses. This will require a combination of training and recruiting nurses, and helping our amazing staff who may otherwise have considered leaving our health service altogether, to retrain, upskill, develop their careers and stay in the NHS.”