Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking as part of the NHS Long Term Plan to ensure that there is an adequate number of staff to provide treatment for elderly people.

The NHS Long Term Plan, published 7 January 2019, sets out a vital strategic framework to ensure that over the next 10 years the National Health Service will have the staff it needs so that nurses and doctors have the time they need to care for all patients, including elderly people.

Rt. hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care has commissioned Baroness Dido Harding, working closely with Sir David Behan, to lead a number of programmes to engage with key NHS interests to develop a detailed workforce implementation plan. These programmes will consider detailed proposals to grow the workforce, including consideration of additional staff and skills required, build a supportive working culture in the NHS and ensure first rate leadership for NHS staff. This will include work to ensure doctors are trained with the generalist skills needed to meet the needs of an ageing population, alongside the development of specialist knowledge and skills and expanding multi-professional credentialing to enable clinicians to develop new capabilities in issues such as an ageing population.

The workforce required to provide treatment for elderly people comprises a range of healthcare professionals, including doctors and nurses.

We are already increasing nurse training places by 25% - that is 5,000 additional nurse training places available every year from September 2018. In 2018 up to 5,000 Nursing Associates commenced training through the apprentice route and the Department has a commitment to train up to a further 7,500 in 2019.

We have also made a commitment to have 5,000 additional doctors in general practice and we have started to roll out an extra 1,500 medical school places for domestic students, with the first 630 places taken up in September 2018.

Furthermore, the NHS has seen the emergence and increased use of new professional roles within multi-disciplinary teams, such as physician associates (PAs), as part of a continuing drive to provide safe, accessible and high-quality care for patients. There will be 1,000 more PAs available in primary care by 2020 as part of a wider commitment to make available 10,000 health care professionals in primary care within this timeframe.