Health: Cancer Nurses

Lord Forsyth of Drumlean Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness will know that the NHS benefits from many of those visas issued under tier 2, which obviously has great benefits for our workforce. It is in the long-term interests of this country that we recruit more of our staff, wherever possible, from the domestic workforce. On that basis, Health Education England has committed to increase the number of cancer consultants by more than 20% between 2016 and 2021, as well as increasing the number of radiographers and others.

[Lord Forsyth of Drumlean (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend really think it necessary that specialist cancer nurses are educated to degree level? If he does think that, given that because of their levels of remuneration most of the student loan will not be paid back, would it not be a good idea to consider writing off those student loans for those nurses who stay for a period within the health service?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

What comes to life in the cancer workforce strategy and the Macmillan report is the complexity of the workload that these nurses carry out, so a very high level of qualification is required. One thing we do not have at the moment is a national competency framework, which is being designed. Funding for nurses is obviously a topic that we come to often in this House and it is worth noting that the income point at which repayment of the loan starts has been increased by this Government, to make sure that lower-paid nurses and other staff are alleviated from that burden.