The
Government has announced a £3.4bn boost to the NHS training budget.
The
money will fund 8,000 extra training places for nurses, midwives and
scientists.
A
£1m national recruitment campaign has also been launched as the service tries
to attract new workers and tempt staff back into the NHS.
Health
Minister John Hutton said: "Increasing the numbers of training places is
crucial to helping the NHS expand the services it provides to patients.
"There
are already more nurses, doctors and allied health professionals working in the
NHS than ever before and more staff in training, but we need to build on this
success."
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Hutton
predicted there would be an extra 35,000 nurses, midwives and health visitors,
plus an extra 30,000 more therapists and scientists within the NHS by 2008.