'We saved your life Boris,' student nurses recruited to work Covid-19 front line angry as placements cut short

Thousands of student nurses recruited to work on the front line against Covid-19 have been told their placements will be cut short, plunging some of them into financial despair. Many nurses expressed their outrage at a decision from NHS England that their paid placements will now finish on 31 July instead of running until the end of September. But Health Education England (HEE) – which oversees training – said that it was 'made clear to students who opted into paid placements' that the arrangements would need to come to an end at 'an appropriate point'. One nurse calling herself Becky Jane said nurses had been told by HEE that the NHS can no longer afford to keep the paid placements going until the end of September as originally promised. “Some of us left jobs for this. Many of us have children and families to care for,' she wrote on a message on Facebook. She said nurses could graduate with around £30,000 debt already and had signed up for the six-month placements at the start of April despite being “terrified” of contracting Covid-19.