National Health Service: Nurses

Debate between Lord O'Shaughnessy and Baroness Gardner of Parkes

Wednesday 22nd February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I am sorry that the noble Lord takes such a negative view of the changes we are making. There are actually 6,500 more full-time equivalent nurses and health visitors than there were in 2010. There has been a 15% increase in the number of training places and of course, through our reforms which he just mentioned, we are taking the cap off the amount of training places that can be offered.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, can the Minister tell us how the apprenticeship scheme is going, because a lot of damage was done when Tony Blair said that you had to have five A-levels to become a nurse? We hope that this apprenticeship scheme will counteract that.

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I am grateful to my noble friend for mentioning the nursing degree apprenticeship, which was announced at the end of last year. The first nurses should be in place from September of this year. Once established, this apprenticeship route could allow up to 1,000 additional nurses to join the NHS every year.

Hospital Beds: Availability

Debate between Lord O'Shaughnessy and Baroness Gardner of Parkes

Thursday 9th February 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Lord is quite right to raise the issue of mental health. I do not have the specific figure with me but I will write to him with it. We know that there has been a historic disparity between the two services. This was recognised by the Prime Minister in a very important speech she gave a few weeks ago, setting out some of the ways in which the Government are doing more on this. However, there is clearly a lot more to do.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

What is the situation of people providing care at home on behalf of councils? Many carers I know are called out at 10 or 11 at night to receive someone who has just been sent home from hospital. However, they are not really trained themselves; they are trained only by the care agency. Is it not time that we provided them with proper training, particularly as so many of them have come from the Philippines and other such places and we are not sure what the future holds for them?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

My noble friend is quite right that there has been an increasing prevalence of domiciliary care, which involves carers caring for patients in their own homes. Making sure that those patients can get home at a good time that works for them and those who support them is clearly a critical part of dealing with this delayed discharge issue.

Health Workers: Training

Debate between Lord O'Shaughnessy and Baroness Gardner of Parkes

Wednesday 18th January 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

I do not recognise the description of “slagging off”. We know that GPs do a fantastic job and we are recruiting more of them—5,000, as the noble Lord said. More money is going into general practice as part of the five-year forward view. The Prime Minister in her statement paid tribute to the work that GPs do and said that there were obligations around extended hours and the provision of out-of-hours healthcare—and it is quite right, with the pressures we face, that every part of the healthcare system steps up to fulfil its responsibilities just as others are doing, in order to meet the pressure we are under.

[Baroness Gardner of Parkes (Con)]

My Lords, in the past I have raised the issue of the standard of training for nurses and the fact that they have to have five A-levels to get in. The answer from the Government is that they are about to introduce training that will not require five A-levels and therefore will produce many more nurses. Can the Minister tell us what is happening with that and whether there is any real progress?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

There are two routes into nursing. One is the university route, and because of the changes we are making, there will be the possibility for universities to recruit up to 10,000 more nurses. That is why we are removing the cap. We have also introduced an apprenticeship route, which does not involve going to university but follows the apprenticeship route practised in other fields. That will have 1,000 places in its first instance.