A fifth of nursing jobs in Croydon Health Services NHS Trust were not filled last year, according to a new report, despite Government denials of a nursing shortage in London.

Some 258 nursing posts at the trust were left unfilled in July 2015, a vacancy rate of 20 per cent, according to figures obtained by the Royal College of Nursing (RCN).

This compares to a London-wide vacancy rate of 17 per cent - the equivalent of some 10,140 unfilled nursing posts.

The RCN, which obtained the figures from NHS trusts through Freedom of Information requests, has blamed pay freezes and Government cuts to nurses training for the shortfall in permanent nurses in the capital.

But a Department of Health spokesman said: "We do not recognise these figures. Official statistics show that Londoners have already benefitted from 3,400 additional nurses since May 2010 and this is down to continued government investment in the frontline.

"We have 50,000 nurses in training and our recent changes to student funding will mean up to 10,000 more training places across the country by 2020."

In November Chancellor George Osborne announced plans to axe the bursary paid to nursing students, replacing the payment with a loan - a move some warn could saddle trainee nurses with up to £65,000 of debt.

RCN London regional director Bernell Bussue said: "London needs more nurses. The problem is partly down to short-sighted workforce planning which saw training posts cut in the past, meaning there aren’t enough home grown nurses coming through the system.

"The Government urgently needs to give nursing staff a pay rise at a level which helps them settle in the capital for the long term, before staffing shortages start to damage the quality of care which London’s patients receive."

A spokesman for Croydon Health Services said the trust always tried to use permanent nursing staff, but was sometimes forced to rely on agency staff to "maintain patient safety".

He said: "The trust monitors its clinical staffing levels a number of times each day and uses a nursing safer staffing tool to assess the safety of nurse staff levels on a shift by shift basis."

The spokesman added that the trust's 'Could you be a Croydon Nurse?’ campaign had seen increasing numbers of its nursing students stay on after completing training.

Labour London Assembly member Fiona Twycross said: “Over recent years we’ve seen a devastating mix of NHS cuts, reductions in nurse training posts and bursaries, and low morale brought about by increasing work pressures.

"It’s little wonder that fewer people are attracted to nursing and that those who are in the profession want out."

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