Health and Social Care Update

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Monday 10th October 2022 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

We live in a time of a very competitive jobs market and such a competitive market brings challenges with it, as the noble Lord says. We need to make sure that people feel that these jobs not only are recognised as important but make sense economically for them as well. We are investing £15 million in expanding our recruitment and resourcing to attract more people into the industry. We also need to look overseas and I think many are aware of our plans to do that. It is not lost on the team over here that we need to make sure that this is an attractive job and career for people to move into.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, I join others in welcoming the Minister to his new place. I acknowledge that he has stepped in very late in the piece to pick up this Statement, but we are right to ask questions on it. Unlike the noble Baronesses on the Front Benches, I want to address the issue of the number and supply of doctors, particularly GPs. There are some strong statements here about “setting the expectation” of getting an appointment within two weeks, “opening up time” for 1 million more appointments and helping practices “improve performance”. Think about what GP practices have done in improving performance: there were 4.9 million more appointments in December 2021 than there had been two years previously—a 20% rise. A BMA survey found that nine out of 10 doctors reported that their workload was excessive and dangerous. This Statement says that there will be more and more GP appointments, but where will the doctors needed to provide this service in a healthy and safe manner come from?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

As I mentioned, we have 3,500 more doctors, but the 50 million more appointments target, which we are well on the way to delivering, is from not just GPs but across the piece. It is also from nurses and community pharmacies. I think we would all agree that doctors are our most precious resource. Given the comments on not wishing to overburden them and the stresses of that, we need to make sure that their limited time is focused on the patients that most essentially need that time. We are expanding supply and spreading it among nurses—as I mentioned, from my experience with my mother, they are very capable and willing to pick up a lot—and among pharmacies as well.