NHS Workforce Expansion

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Helen Whately

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately]

On the contrary, we have already made progress on some things in our social care White Paper published just over a year ago. We will soon publish next steps, particularly focused on workforce reforms. I have been talking to several stakeholders involved in exactly that area over the last few weeks. If the hon. Lady is patient she will see some of that coming forward.

I was talking about some of the things that we have done to vastly increase the number of healthcare professionals in the NHS. As part of our ambitions for the future, more than 26,000 students were accepted on to nursing and midwifery courses in England last year—a 28% increase on 2019. We are on track to meet our manifesto commitment of 50,000 more nurses by 2024. Much as we continue to strive to go further and faster, those are the figures as they stand. We might wish to make a comparison with Labour-controlled Wales, though it is sometimes hard to do so because it does not collect crucial data such as vacancy rates. One has to wonder why. That is the same Labour-run Wales where patients are twice as likely to be waiting for treatment as in England. Some 50,000 people are currently waiting over two years, while here in England we eliminated two-year waits last year.

I will move on from the situation in Wales, as I am sure Opposition Members will be glad to do so. The Leader of the Opposition has said that he thinks we are hiring too many people from overseas in health and care. The same gentleman spent several years campaigning for a second referendum on freedom of movement. Whatever his views this week, it is the work of a responsible Government to look at every available option to give this country the health and care workforce that it needs. Alongside training more doctors and nurses, recruiting from overseas and giving people from other countries a chance to work in the NHS is the right thing to do.

[Chi Onwurah]

I am pleased to hear the Minister say that it is the Government’s duty to look at every available option. During the pandemic, I take it that she clapped on her doorstep for the NHS workforce who did so much to get us through it, so why will she not look at the option of abolishing the non-dom tax loophole, to fund more nurses and doctors and a better NHS in future?

[Helen Whately]

A responsible Government take a responsible approach to funding our public services, including the NHS. Later I will come to exactly the point about the Opposition’s proposals to use that funding pot again and again for the health service.

Coming to social care and international recruitment, we have put care workers on the shortage occupation list. As a result, social care employers have already been able to offer care worker visas to more than 34,000 people. I welcome international nurses joining our nursing and midwifery register, and I make no apology for continuing to encourage bright and talented international doctors to come and work in the NHS. In fact, that is the very idea of the points-based immigration system that we have so successfully implemented.

As well as recruiting the best and the brightest, it is vital that we retain them. Ultimately, our goal is to make sure that the NHS is one of the very best places to work in the world; both my parents were NHS doctors and, believe me, I have had plenty of conversations about why sometimes it is not. What is most frustrating is when the system prevents them from giving people the very best care.

It is not simply all about pay, as Opposition Members might have us believe. The hon. Member for Ilford North talked about nursing pay, but he will understand that we are currently in talks and now is not the moment to play politics with this issue. We are pleased that the Royal College of Nursing has paused strike action. We have no doubt that both sides are committed to finding a fair and reasonable settlement—one that recognises the vital role that nurses and nursing play in the health service, the wider economic pressure facing the United Kingdom and the Prime Minister’s priority to halve inflation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Helen Whately

Tuesday 8th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Care (Helen Whately)]

My hon. Friend makes a really important point. Nurse education standards are set by the Nursing and Midwifery Council. Its current standards are based on EU law, but that no longer applies to the UK, and it has launched a survey on whether those standards should change. Acceptances for pre-registration nursing programmes at English universities for 2020-21 increased by over 5,000 since the previous year.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

Many constituents have con, deeply concerned by Government proposals to grab, store and share GP health data. Can the Secretary of State tell me this: if I opt out of this data grab, will my health data be available to a hospital outside my home area should I have an accident, for example? If I do not opt out of it, how can I control how my data is shared, whether individually or in aggregate? I do not want to have to choose between privacy and my health.

NHS Staff Pay

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Helen Whately

Monday 8th March 2021 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately]

I thank my hon. Friend, who makes a really important point. The balance between nationally set pay and local pay has been a point of much debate over the years. There are pros and cons to both ways. We do not want to have trusts competing directly all the time for workforce, but on the other hand there are higher costs of living, for instance, in some areas. That is why there is some flexibility in the system for different levels of pay according to different areas, as he will well know, and some extra support in areas where it is hard to retain staff. I always to listen to his expertise, which I really value.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

Earlier this year, Baroness Harding defended giving £1,000 per day to private sector consultants on the failing test and trace programme. Now, the Minister says we cannot afford to give our NHS heroes a real-terms pay rise. Given that covid will be with us for years to come, given the outstanding non-covid backlog in treatment, and given the incredible pressure on NHS staff, the existing 100,000 NHS vacancies and the resulting reliance on expensive agency staff, can we really afford not to?

[Helen Whately]

The hon. Lady talks about the NHS workforce. One of the fabulous things we have seen throughout the pandemic—I am really grateful to all those who work in the NHS for this—is a reduction in the leaver rates, so more people are staying and sticking with the NHS, which is truly phenomenal. We have to make sure we look after those people, and I talked earlier about some of the support for the NHS workforce as we recover. It is also fabulous to see such extra interest in careers in the NHS; for instance, over a third more people are applying to become nursing students this year compared with last year. I also want to make this point on the test and trace question: it is not either test and trace or the NHS workforce. We need to have a test and trace system, and, of course, pay our NHS workforce.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Helen Whately

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Helen Whately]

I know that the report to which the hon. Lady refers, which was commissioned by the Secretary State for Health and Social Care, did indeed have some very serious findings. We absolutely will take action based on that report. We are also working on the Transforming Care agenda to ensure that people with learning disabilities and autism are not inappropriately in in-patient settings. There is, of course, also the reform of the Mental Health Act, which will mean that it should no longer be used for the detention of people with learning disabilities and autism beyond the 28-day period for assessment.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

What steps her Department has taken to help tackle the disproportionate effect of the covid-19 outbreak on Black, Asian and minority ethnic communities.