Baroness Corston
Main Page: Baroness Corston (Labour - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Baroness Corston's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(5 years, 7 months ago)
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Lord O'Shaughnessy
The immigration surcharge, which applies to all people coming to work here from outside the EU, is about making sure that there is a fair contribution to the running costs of the NHS. That is a reasonable thing to do—it is what the public would expect us to do—but it is important to ensure that it is done in a fair and reasonable way, which represents the average costs incurred by people coming from outside the EU.
Baroness Corston (Lab)
My Lords, the Minister said in response to one of my colleagues on these Benches that there were 12,000 more doctors now in the National Health Service. Can he tell us how many of them work part time?
Lord O'Shaughnessy
I gave the wrong number: there are actually 14,000 more doctors. I am sure that the noble Baroness would welcome that. I do not have the figures on part-time working but we know, for example, that in general practice there is increasing interest in part-time work. That of course means we need to recruit even more people, which is why it is encouraging that this year there are more GPs in training than ever before.