While the titanic fight between junior doctors and the Tory Government flares on, today, in Parliament, an Opposition Day debate drew attention to another attack on health workers, this time trainee nurses, midwives and other related professionals.
Under plans announced by the Chancellor in November, NHS funding for students will be scrapped from 2017. The move has been criticised by UNISON, the Royal College of Nursing and even Tory MP and former nurse Maria Caulfield, who joined 139 cross party MPs who signed a motion calling on the Government to "drop its plans to remove NHS bursaries".
In the wake of today's debate, Salford and Eccles MP Rebecca Long Bailey said the Government's actions will lead to an even worse staffing crisis in the NHS...
"The removal of the bursary will force student nurses to take out massive student loans and they receive very little in terms of pay at the end, certainly not what they deserve" she explained "There is a big moral question here as well, aside from the fact that education should be free, nurses work as they train so it's not right that the government should ask them to essentially pay their own wages!
"There is also the issue of student nurses, who work all the hours god sends anyway, taking second jobs just to make ends meet, making them tired and putting themselves and patients at risk" she added "Many are mature students with families and they simply cannot take on the burden of debt the government is expecting them to take on.
"The decision of Ministers to cut nurse training places during the last Parliament has left hospital wards dangerously understaffed and patient care at risk, with important tasks being left undone" she said "This situation is only going to get worse if Ministers press ahead with their misguided plan to scrap student NHS bursaries and discourage the next generation of frontline NHS staff."
A recent survey by UNISON found that nearly two thirds of nursing staff said they felt there were inadequate numbers of staff on the wards to ensure safe, dignified and compassionate care, while almost three quarters were worried poor staffing levels was a risk to patient safety.
Meanwhile, new analysis from the House of Commons Library shows that the number of nursing, midwifery and health visiting staff working in the NHS has fallen from 6,786 per million people in November 2009 to 6,645 in November 2015.
"It's time Ministers stood up for the NHS" said Rebecca Long Bailey "rather than standing by and allowing the staffing crisis to get worse..."
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