Up to 80,000 British students each year cannot find places on nursing courses even though the NHS is hiring thousands from abroad, it was revealed yesterday.

And nurses in their 40s who left to start families say they are unable to find jobs to come back to, apparently because they are going to younger European candidates.

It also emerged it costs the NHS £70,000 to train a nurse for three years – but for the same amount it could hire three qualified foreigners on an average salary of £23,000.

Up to 80,000 British students each year cannot find places on nursing courses even though the NHS is hiring thousands from abroad

Hospitals recruited almost 6,000 overseas nurses last year, a four-fold increase on the previous year.

Four out of five new NHS nurses are foreign, with managers flying to Spain and Portugal to hire up to 50 at a time. Dr Peter Carter, of the Royal College of Nursing, yesterday accused the Government of ‘lamentable workforce planning’.

‘We’ve now got a crisis and we’ve got trusts recruiting from all points of the compass,’ he added.

Dr Sarah Wollaston, the chairman of the Health Select Committee, said it was ‘time to deliver’ the workforce the NHS needs and to give thousands of young Britons a chance. The RCN estimates there are 100,000 applicants a year for the 20,000 training places in Britain.

In recent years the Government has cut the number of places, from 20,829 in 2009/10 to 17,219 in 2012/13 – although it rose last year to 19,206.

Dr Sarah Wollaston (left), the chairman of the Health Select Committee, said it was ‘time to deliver’ the workforce the NHS needs and to give thousands of young Britons a chance, while Dr Peter Carter (right), of the Royal College of Nursing, yesterday accused the Government of 'lamentable workforce planning'

Figures released on Tuesday show that hospitals hired 5,778 foreign nurses last year, up from 1,360 the year before.

There are fears that severe staffing shortages are leading managers to lower the bar for recruits’ English skills.

Dr Carter told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme that it was ‘totally unacceptable’ for hospitals not to give proper English tests.

And Dr Wollaston criticised the ‘yo-yo of recruitment’, adding: ‘It’s time for [training] schemes to deliver on the right numbers of nurses and doctors for today’s NHS and increase the opportunities for the thousands of British applicants.’

In the past, training nurses was far cheaper because they could learn as apprentices in hospitals. But a system brought in during the 1990s required all nurses to have a degree.

Last month the Mail visited a recruitment fair in Porto, Portugal, where Bedford Hospital hired 25 nurses. They were offered contracts without any formal English tests and some were even given help filling in the application form.

Last month the Mail visited a recruitment fair in Porto, Portugal (pictured), where Bedford Hospital hired 25 nurses. They were offered contracts without any formal English tests

Joana Duarte, 22, Daniela Soares, 22, Mariana Santos, 22 and Diana Silva, 22 (pictured left to right) from Porta all attended the Bedford hospital recruitment fair as there are no jobs for them in Portugal

Meanwhile, readers have told the MailOnline website of their own families’ difficulties with finding jobs in the NHS. One man wrote that his wife worked at a hospital in Devon but left in 2004 to start a family.

She tried to return to the NHS after taking a refresher course, but was unable to find a job.

At one interview she was one of 13 candidates for five jobs, which all went to EU nurses.

Another said her daughter, a nurse, found jobs ‘were all filled by overseas candidates. She had no choice but to work in the private sector.’

A third said: ‘My English granddaughter is desperate to train to be a midwife.

‘She has passed English and Maths GCSE, but still has to take a test in these subjects before she can even get an interview at a university.’

A Department of Health spokesman said there were 5,000 more nurses on wards than in May 2010 and 1,000 extra training places this year. The department has started a £5million campaign to get retired nurses back to work.