Jeremy Hunt’s move into the foreign office, as the new foreign secretary, brought to an end his reign as the longest serving health secretary.
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With almost six years in the role, Mr Hunt had plenty of time to leave his mark on the nursing profession.
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- September 2012 – replaces Andrew Lansley as health secretary.
- March 2013 – announces that student nurses will have to work as a healthcare assistant for at least a year in order to qualify.
- March 2015 – after successful negotiations with vaccine manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline, Mr Hunt announces that the meningitis B vaccine will be added to the NHS immunisation programme.
- July 2015 – transfers sole regulation of midwives to the NMC.
- May 2016 – votes against a motion put forward by the Labour Party to prevent the scrapping of the NHS bursary.
- December 2016 – announces a new nurse degree apprenticeship route into nursing.
- December 2016 – calls on the Nursing and Midwifery Council to regulate nursing associates.
- January 2017 – Department of Health announces that the NHS bursary for undergraduate students, including those taking nursing degrees, will no longer be available from August 2017.
- October 2017 – announces plans to increase the number of nurses trained every year by more than 5,000, alongside a ‘tripling’ of the number of nursing associates.
- October 2017 – removes the 1% pay cap on nurse pay in an announcement to Parliament.
- November 2017 – opens discussions with NHS Employers and unions over a new pay deal for NHS staff.
- March 2018 – agrees a new pay deal for NHS staff with NHS Employers and unions. The deal sees most nurses receive at least 6.5% increases on their pay, with many receiving pay rises bigger than this.
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