Extra £210m for nurse training

An extra £210m will be given to strategic health authorities to pay for both pre- and post-registration nurse training in the new financial year, NT has learnt.

According to the Department of Health, this increase brings the non-medical education and training budget for 2008–2009 to almost £1.9bn.

This figure does not include any potential increase in student bursaries as this has not been announced.

The total funding pot for training the health service workforce has also increased by around £260m to £45bn, suggesting that nurses have been awarded the largest share of the total increase.