A union has hit back at David Cameron’s dismissal of a nurse shortage in Redbridge and Waltham Forest, saying the situation was “critical”.

During Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, Leyton and Wanstead MP John Cryer raised concerns over figures from the Royal College of Nursing (RCN), which claimed London has over 8,000 posts unfilled.

The Prime Minister yesterday said the number of nurses were actually on the increase in Waltham Forest and Redbridge.

He also said funding in the NHS had been significantly increased since the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition took power.

But RCN London regional director Bernell Bussue was unimpressed, saying that action needed to be taken as soon as possible.

He said: “London is suffering from a critical shortage of nurses with over 8000 NHS nursing posts unfilled, and the pay freeze imposed by the government is directly contributing to those recruitment difficulties.

“We need much better strategic workforce planning to make sure that in the long term we have enough new nurses being trained to work here in London to support increasing demand from patients.

“More immediately we need an end to the pay freeze as soon as possible.

“The government needs to properly value nursing as a profession, so that London remains an attractive destination for nurses to come and build a career and help safeguard the quality of services to patients and users of our NHS.”