A few years ago there was quite a dust up after a rather affluent man ‘experienced’ a hospital stay. Conditions were so bad his wife had to be creative and forceful to sweep him out of that hospital and into another. He then wrote an expose of sorts for the newspapers. He was QUITE specific about the nurses in the first hospital: “dirty, grubby hands” “unwashed hair” “unkempt, dirty uniforms” and described how EVERY nurse who had attended him had loudly spoken of her tawdry sex life with other nurses while changing bedding etc. It seems to be wage related - the pay is so low that only this type of person becomes a nurse in that hospital. At the time, the officials responsible for that hospital said all of the nurses were quite ‘gutted’ by his comments etc. Seems nothing has changed.
The NHS have cut back on RN’s - I believe they’re talking about nursing aides who practically run the units or wards.