National Health Service Bill Debate

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Andrew Smith

Main Page: Andrew Smith (Labour - Oxford East)
Friday 11th March 2016

(8 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Caroline Lucas Portrait Caroline Lucas
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I am grateful to the hon. Lady, who speaks with great expertise in this area. She is absolutely right that the creeping privatisation and marketisation are, along with all the other problems they bring, incredibly inefficient.

Andrew Smith Portrait Mr Andrew Smith (Oxford East) (Lab)
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I am sure that everyone in the House sympathises with the lack of time for Second Reading of the hon. Lady’s Bill. Does she agree that the NHS is also direly threatened by the imposition of brutal pay restraint policies that do such damage to recruitment and retention, particularly in places such as Oxford?

Caroline Lucas Portrait Caroline Lucas
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I absolutely agree with the right hon. Gentleman. It is no wonder that we cannot recruit more nurses and doctors when the Government treat them so badly and their expertise is so unappreciated.