NHS Workforce Expansion

Debate between Grahame Morris and Wes Streeting

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I very much enjoyed my visit to Leeds with the shadow Chancellor to look at the work the acute trust is doing with Leeds City Council to speed up delayed discharges. He is absolutely right about the impact of the churn of staff on a ward—because they are not regular staff on a contract of employment at a particular hospital or medical facility—and it can be quite distressing for patients to see the faces and names change every day and to constantly be explaining once again what their experience in the hospital has been, if indeed the staff have time to stop and talk.

I am really struck by the fact that one of the biggest issues that staff raise with me is the moral injury. The fact is that they are busting a gut and working their socks off, and they go home at the end of the day deeply demoralised, distressed and depressed because they know that, despite their very best efforts, they are not providing the quality of care that patients deserve, through no fault of their own. That is why, even above the issues of pay and of terms and conditions, which I think many of us would understand in and of themselves, I think the straw that is breaking the camel’s back is the moral injury. Unless we address that, we are going to lose the brilliant staff we have, before we even start to think about recruiting the staff we need.

[Grahame Morris (Easington) (Lab)]

I am very grateful to my hon. Friend for giving way before my knee does. Clearly, he is a man with a plan. Is it not incredible that we do not have a plan for dealing with cancer—the Government have dropped the 10-year cancer plan—particularly at a time when 50,000 patients a month are having to wait more than two weeks between diagnosis and seeing a specialist? We need a plan that incorporates workforce recruitment and retention.

[Wes Streeting]

I apologise for keeping my hon. Friend bobbing—the last thing the NHS needs is another patient, so I hope the exercise has been good for his joints rather than the straw that breaks that camel’s back.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I think cancer treatment is in many respects the canary in the coalmine, because it is an area where speed really does matter and where early detection can make a huge difference to the success of the outcomes. It is why, when we were in government, we had a cancer guarantee. By pursuing that cancer guarantee and making sure that patients received timely access to both diagnosis and treatment, the rising tide for cancer patients lifted all ships, and we saw a general improvement in the NHS, so that by the time we left government we had the lowest waiting times in history.

I am deeply anxious that within those waiting lists, which stand at a record in excess of 7 million now, will be a huge amount of undiagnosed cancer. As I know from personal experience of going to accident and emergency with something else, it is often in A&E departments that cancer is detected. I worry how many cancer patients like me will arrive at A&E, see the waiting times and walk away with a cancer undiagnosed. It certainly keeps me awake at night, and it should keep Ministers awake at night too.