Medical Training (Prioritisation) Bill

Debate between Alistair Strathern and Wes Streeting

2nd reading
Tuesday 27th January 2026 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I will make some progress because, with respect, I have not yet set out the measures that we are to debate today. Let me take the intervention from my hon. Friend the Member for Hitchin, then I will set out the Government’s rationale and take further interventions.

[Alistair Strathern (Hitchin) (Lab)]

I wonder if the Secretary of State shares my residents’ utter disbelief that the last Government created a system where thousands of UK medical graduates, educated at the cost of billions to the UK taxpayer, were suddenly forced to compete with overseas students, pushing many abroad for their careers and losing a big talent pool that should be powering our NHS and getting it back on its feet.

[Wes Streeting]

That is right. I have to say, many of my counterparts around the world cannot fathom how we ended up in this situation in the first place. They certainly do not do as we have been doing, investing so much in their home-grown talent only to then see that talent compete on equal terms with anyone from anywhere else in the world.

Let me set out why we need this Bill. There are workforce problems that only Government can solve. We know that the treatment of resident doctors has been totally unacceptable for years and we see the training bottlenecks that resident doctors face today. In 2019, there were around 12,000 applicants for 9,000 specialty training places. This year, that has soared to nearly 40,000 applicants for 10,000 places, with nearly twice as many overseas-trained applicants as UK-trained ones. As a result, we now have the ridiculous state of affairs where UK medical graduates, whose training British taxpayers fund to the tune of £4 billion a year and who want to carve out a career in their NHS, are either being lost abroad or to the private sector. If we do not deal with that, the scale of the issue and the resentment it causes will just get worse. More taxpayers’ money will be wasted, more British medics will turn their backs on the NHS, and patients and our NHS will ultimately suffer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alistair Strathern and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 25th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

Phase 1 of the Casey commission reports next year and the final Casey report is due by 2028, but the Chancellor has already announced an increase in funding for social care in the Budget, through means that the hon. Lady’s party regrettably seems to oppose.

[Alistair Strathern (Hitchin) (Lab)]

T3.   It is impossible not to be inspired by my constituent Hayley and the bravery of her daughter, Lily, after Lily was diagnosed with an optic pathway glioma at the age of just one. Hayley stepped back from work not just to look after Lily but to make sure she was able to campaign for change. The Government’s commitment to a national cancer plan is welcome, but with brain tumours not typically being staged or screenable, how can we ensure that they are not overlooked as part of the plan’s development?

Health and Social Care: Winter Update

Debate between Alistair Strathern and Wes Streeting

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for her question and for showing off her constituents’ uptake—that is exactly what we want. Perhaps ahead of next winter, we should launch a parliamentary competition: who can boost uptake most in their constituencies? We will think about the prize.

More seriously, I am always glad when the pressure is to expand access to vaccines—that is exactly the sort of pressure that we want. We follow advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. We will review the experience this winter, and the JCVI will review evidence and data this winter and make recommendations, which we will take into account.

[Alistair Strathern (Hitchin) (Lab)]

The dire state that the last Government left the NHS in was all too apparent, tragically, to many of my constituents who needed it last winter. My 85-year-old constituent admitted with breathing difficulties had to wait over 30 hours in a chair because there were no beds available, and they were far from alone in that indignity and prolonged suffering. They should not have to tolerate it, and I certainly will not as their MP. I welcome this Government’s action and leadership on ending the doctors’ strike and investing in more appointments, but what more will the Secretary of State do to ensure that, next winter, many more of my constituents are not suffering from the same challenges?

[Wes Streeting]

I am extremely grateful to my hon. Friend for the spirit of his question. That is exactly how this Government are approaching planning for next winter. I want year-on-year improvement in NHS performance, particularly our response to winter pressures. Of course, there are seasonal variations in infectious diseases, inclement weather and all sorts of other pressures that can impact on NHS services, but the system should be resilient enough to withstand pressures in any given winter. It will take time to get back there, but that is why the Government are already planning for next winter, learning from experience—what has worked well and what has not—so that we can continue to deliver for the people of this country and improve the national health service and social care services.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Alistair Strathern and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would be delighted for my hon. Friend to meet me or the relevant Minister. The NHS has a statutory duty to ensure sufficient services in each local area, including general practice, and it is vital that we also take into account population growth and demographic changes. I strongly support the Deputy Prime Minister’s commitment to delivering 1.5 million new homes, and she and I know that that must be accompanied by local healthcare facilities. We are working together to achieve just that.

[Alistair Strathern]

I really welcome this Government’s focus on making sure everyone can see a GP when they need one. The crisis in GP provision nationally has been exacerbated by the failure under the last Government to ensure that primary care investment has kept pace with housing growth. With such a low share of integrated care board capital funding allocated to primary care by the last Government, how can we make sure we do much better in ensuring that GP capacity expands at the same time as local growth?

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend has been raising these issues with me since before he was elected to this place on behalf of the communities he represents. As I said to my hon. Friend the Member for Barking (Nesil Caliskan), we must make sure that additional housing—which is desperately needed—is accompanied by health and care services. The Deputy Prime Minister and I are working together to achieve just that, and thanks to the decisions taken by the Chancellor in the Budget, we are able to invest in the health and care services that this country needs and deserves.