NHS Workforce Expansion

Kate Hollern Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Kate Hollern (Blackburn) (Lab)]

We are here today because, for a decade, the Government have failed to invest in the workforce of the NHS. Just as an example, there are more than 3,000 posts unfilled for ambulance drivers and paramedics, the highest level for five years. The Government have failed to train the staff, which in turn has fuelled record waiting times for ambulances and poorer outcomes for patients. There are 3,334 vacancies. Quite often, the Government will say, “It’s Ukraine, it’s covid”—it’s anything but Government failures—but the truth is that that figure of 3,334 vacancies is nearly double what it was a year earlier, and three times higher than in September 2020. Heart attack and stroke victims waited an average of an hour and a half for an ambulance and of course, with those illnesses, every minute matters.

We have talked about investment. The Minister has said that there will be an extra £14 billion for the NHS over the next two years, but she fails to accept that, because of the Government’s poor planning, trusts have been backed into a corner. The North West Ambulance Service has spent over £15 million on private ambulances in the past year—how many staff would that money fund? We are talking about short-term fixes, rather than long-term plans. That is not the only example. NHS trusts across England increasingly rely on expensive agency staff. One organisation is shelling out as much as £2,500 for a single agency nurse shift. We have nurses on picket lines to oppose the pittance they get. The NHS paid more than £3 billion to agencies to provide nurses and doctors at short notice during 2021-22. That was a 20% increase on the year before, when health services paid out £2.4 billion on short-term fixes, leaving long-term problems. Temporary staff have vital roles in providing safe care, but they should not be continually used to offset a shortfall in permanent staff. Sadly, my fear is that that will become the norm.

Trusts in England spent £6 billion on bank staff in 2021-22, taking the total spend on additional staffing to around £9.2 billion. Published analysis suggests that one in three NHS trusts paid an agency more than £1,000 for a single shift, while one in every six trusts paid more than £2,000. That is a disgraceful indictment of the health service. You almost think people are trying to privatise it through the back door—underfund it, destroy it and let the private sector pick it up.

That comes amid a record nurse shortage across the NHS. We have heard about the additional staff we have, but I would like to know where they are, because we have 47,000 vacancies for nurses. Again, we have a short-term fix and long-term pain. This crisis cannot go on and we need to understand that it is a Government failure. I welcome the shadow Secretary of State bringing this debate forward, because the situation has become urgent and it needs serious discussion and serious plans. It is disappointing that the hon. Member for Newcastle-under-Lyme (Aaron Bell) was critical of Scottish and Welsh Members being here. It is interesting to see the Government Benches: there is no one here to defend the record because it is indefensible.

It is not just about ambulances and nurses. The hon. Member for St Albans (Daisy Cooper) mentioned district nurses, dentists and GPs. According to the BMA, we now have 2,078 fewer GPs than we had in 2015, despite Ministers telling us we have thousands more. Where are they? They are certainly not in Blackburn. Then we come to cancer patients. Again, we hear constantly about covid. Someone close to me, through a late diagnosis and a lack of treatment, sadly died in 2017. Had he got that diagnosis earlier, he would still be here today. That brings me on to Macmillan and cancer support.

Cancer waiting times in England have plummeted to the worst on record. Last year was the first in the 13-year history of Government records in which all national cancer targets in England were missed for at least a month. In a system that has already reached breaking point, we need the Government to take measures now to address cancer workforce shortages and to put urgent plans in place to help cancer services. As my hon. Friend the Member for Easington (Grahame Morris) says, 3.3 million people will be living with cancer by 2030. We need our workforce capacity to grow by 3,371 nurses.

Macmillan was encouraged by the Chancellor’s commitment to work with NHS England to develop a long-term workforce plan and to publish workforce forecasts for the next five to 10 years. Sadly, we have already lost 10 years, and too many people have paid the price—patients who through failure of treatment have lost their lives, and staff who are burned out. We have ambulance staff on stress medication, and nurses concerned about how they will manage to feed their families. Is that an NHS to be proud of? It is certainly something I am not proud of. I was always proud of the NHS in the UK, which was held up as a great example across the world. We are now embarrassed by the state of the NHS. I watched a programme last week about hospitals with burst sewer pipes and not enough nurses to make sure that patients were saved. It is disgraceful. This Government must bring forward not the gloss of “We are doing this, this and this”, but a serious plan identifying serious role shortages, a plan to fix it and to make sure the resources are put in place to carry those promises through.

[Mr Deputy Speaker (Mr Nigel Evans)]

We have two speakers left before the wind-ups. I should imagine that the wind-ups will start at about 4.20 pm, if those Members stick to five minutes, so anybody who has taken part in the debate so far should head back to the Chamber.