Nurses to be asked to work until age of 68

[dutchman]

Nurses will be asked to work until the age of 68 in a new drive to avert a staffing crisis in the NHS.



More than 200,000 nurses are set to retire in the next few years but Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt hopes many will keep working.

The Government has set up a Working Longer Review Group that will also look into nurses aged 60-plus ­working flexible hours in hospitals.

The task force consists of representatives from the Department of Health, ­unions and NHS Employers.

Royal College of Nursing employment relations adviser Gerry O’Dwyer said: “The NHS has little experience of people working beyond 60, never mind 68.”

A University of Bath study found healthy older people “perform as well as younger counterparts” in the NHS.

The number of NHS ­nurses is set to fall by 60,000 – or 11 per cent – by 2016.