Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateIan Lavery
Main Page: Ian Lavery (Labour - Blyth and Ashington)Department Debates - View all Ian Lavery's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(9 years, 2 months ago)
Commons ChamberIt is a particular pleasure to see my hon. Friend returned to the House. He will be aware that local commissioning decisions are the responsibility of local commissioners, which is something that this Government will continue, as per our reforms in the last Government. I am making it expressly clear to NHS England that I expect consultations to be full and proper and to engage everyone in the local community.
T4. The Secretary of State has admitted this morning that under his watch the NHS and the taxpayer have been ripped off to the tune of somewhere in the region of £1.8 billion for temporary workers and £3.3 billion for agency workers. How many fully qualified NHS nurses could have been employed with that type of finance?
I will tell the hon. Gentleman what we have done: on my watch, there are 8,000 more nurses in our hospitals to deal with the tragedy of the legacy of poor care left behind by his party. That is what we have done. As part of that, trusts also recruited temporary staff. They have become over-dependent on them, which is why we have taken the measures we announced this morning.