Demise of the NHSU

I'm a bit worried by plans to axe the NHS University as reported here. The NHSU has only been operating for a year and will be replaced in July 2005, meaning it's a lame duck until then.

I've not had any direct contact with the NHSU so don't know how effective they were being, but the reasons for the NHSU to come into existance are still around now. The NHS as a whole is by far the largest employer in Britain and has an vast pool of staff with the talent to go further, they just need the chance. At the same time we have a real skills shortage in most areas, so we are reliant on expensive agency workers or taking skilled staff from other countries. We need to solve this, and the only way we can is to grow our own, we should make it as easy as possible to do this.

I hope that the new NHS Institute for Learning, Skills and Innovation will help when it comes into existance next year.