Skip to main content
Donate to the 95 years appeal
The historic mistreatment of NHS nurses is unforgivable – it must be stopped for once and for all
HELEN O'CONNOR charts the slow creep of damaging change in the NHS since the ’90s, with a burgeoning number of ‘managers’ with no healthcare experience, increased fragmentation and privatisation, and the abolition of the nursing bursary

WHEN we embarked on our student nurse training in the Whittington hospital, the June 90 set enjoyed conditions that are a distant dream for today’s student nurses. 

The majority of us were just out of secondary school, so we leaped at the chance of gaining independence alongside the prospect of getting a career under our belts at a young age.

The attractive training package which included subsidised accommodation, subsidised meals and a modest salary for personal expenses, meant that the hospital had no problem recruiting student nurses or filling staffing vacancies with nurses who were loyal to the hospital. 

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
Cancer care nurse Preya Assi on the picket line outside University College Hospital, London, ahead of a march from the hospital to Trafalgar Square, as members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) and the Unite union continue their strike action in a dispute over pay, May 1, 2023
RCN Conference 2025 / 12 May 2025
12 May 2025
NHS workers on the picket line outside St Thomas' Hospital,
Britain / 11 November 2024
11 November 2024
Members of the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) on the picket
Britain / 5 November 2024
5 November 2024