Brexit: Nursing Staff

Lord Clark of Windermere Excerpts

Tuesday 27th June 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I reiterate the point that the Prime Minister made yesterday about the welcome, and indeed the offer of settled status, not just to nurses but to any other EU citizens and workers in the country. It is absolutely not the case that they are unwelcome—quite the opposite. They are as valued as much as any other person working in the health service. The noble Baroness mentioned housing, and she is right, of course, that housing is a huge issue for everybody. Indeed, one thing that I want to look at in the next few years is how we can take surplus land that sits within the NHS and make sure that some of it is used to provide the kind of key-worker housing that nurses, doctors and, indeed, other members of the public sector can use, so that they are able to come into the service and support our hospitals.

[Lord Clark of Windermere (Lab)]

My Lords—

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords—

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I completely agree with my noble friend, who speaks from experience. It is important not to peddle a myth of unwelcomeness, when it is clearly the case that nobody has said that they are unwelcome. No one in government has said that they are unwelcome; nor has the BMA, the RCN, or anyone else for that matter. They are valued as highly as any other member of the medical profession.

[Lord Clark of Windermere]

My Lords, does the Minister accept that any fall-off in the number of nurses and doctors from the EC poses a real risk to the health service? Does he accept that, while the number of nurses in training may be increasing now, the Government were wrong in the coalition period after 2010 to cut the number of nurses in training in the UK?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The critical point is to have enough nurses and, indeed, enough medical staff. Of course, where they come from is going to be dictated by various circumstances. As I have discussed already, language controls have been introduced in order to focus on patient safety. We do need to increase the number of nurses in the health sector. That has happened since 2010. There has been an increase. There are more in training. But clearly there need to be more as we have a growing and ageing population.