Tuesday Volume 623 21 March 2017 No. 128 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 21 March 2017 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2017 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 753 21 MARCH 2017 754 Mr Hunt: The one simple thing the Government are House of Commons not going to do is refuse to listen to what the British people said when they voted on 23 June. We will do what they said—it is the right thing to do. However, the Tuesday 21 March 2017 right hon. Gentleman is absolutely right to highlight the vital role that the around 10,000 EU doctors in the The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock NHS play in this country. I can reassure him that the number of doctors joining the NHS from the EU was higher in the four months following the referendum PRAYERS result than in the same four months the previous year. 23. [909376] Helen Whately (Faversham and Mid Kent) [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] (Con): Does my right hon. Friend agree that Kent, with its excellent academic institutions and strong life sciences sector, would be an ideal location for a new medical school, and will he support emerging plans to Oral Answers to Questions establish one? Mr Hunt: I can absolutely confirm that the garden of England would be an ideal place for a new medical HEALTH school—alongside many other parts of the country that are actively competing to start medical schools as a The Secretary of State was asked— result of the expansion in doctor numbers. It is an independent process run by the General Medical Council, Domestic Students of Medicine and we will await what it says with great interest. 1. Rebecca Pow (Taunton Deane) (Con): What steps Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op): On he plans to take to increase the number of opportunities this wonderful first day of spring, will the Secretary of for domestic students to study medicine. [909354] State think anew about the training of GPs? We want more GPs, we want them highly trained and we want The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): them to know that someone who suffers from atrial We are funding 1,500 additional medical school places fibrillation should not be neglected and should not be each year to ensure that the NHS can continue to put on aspirin or warfarin, but should be given the new deliver safe, compassionate and effective care well into anti-coagulants. the future. Around 500 places will be made available in September 2018, and the remaining 1,000 places by Mr Hunt: The hon. Gentleman speaks very wisely September 2019. about this, and he is one of a number of people who say we need to look at the training we give GPs on patient Rebecca Pow: In Taunton Deane, we are desperately safety, on growing, new areas like mental health, and on short of trained health professionals, from dermatologists things like the identification of cancers. This is something to nurses, but one of the worst shortages is of GPs, with we are having an ongoing discussion with the Royal some practices not even able to get locums. I know College of General Practitioners about. Ministers are working on this, but could my right hon. Friend update me on what the Department is doing to Sir Simon Burns (Chelmsford) (Con): Given the encourage more medical students to become GPs? It is importance of training new doctors and nurses to the hard to believe they do not want to come to Somerset, future of the health service, will my right hon. Friend but what are we doing to encourage them? welcome the building, which will commence later this summer at the Anglia Ruskin University in Chelmsford, Mr Hunt: There is no greater champion for Somerset of a new medical school that is solely there to train than my hon. Friend. What I would say to her is what I doctors to meet the needs of people in Essex and would say to all medical students, which is that general beyond its borders? practice is going to be the biggest area of expansion in the NHS over the coming years; in fact, we are planning Mr Hunt: I absolutely welcome that, and I know my to have the biggest increase in GPs in the history of the right hon. Friend has personally championed it as a NHS. local MP. The historical mistake that those on both sides of the House have made is not to do long-term Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab): It will take many workforce planning for the NHS, and that is something years for the doctors the Secretary of State has just we want to put right. talked about to come on stream, and we have a workforce crisis in the NHS now, partly because of the cuts the Dr Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) (SNP): Plans Government made in the last Parliament, but also to train more UK doctors are absolutely welcome, but because of their irrational pursuit of the hardest of the Secretary of State knows that it takes at least Brexits. He could do something very simple today 10 years to train a doctor, so what is his response to to address this crisis in the short term, and that is to the surveys by the British Medical Association and the announce that all EU nationals who do vital work GMC showing that, having been left hanging for nine in our NHS will be able to stay when we leave the months, 40% to 60% of EU doctors are thinking European Union. of leaving? 755 Oral Answers 21 MARCH 2017 Oral Answers 756 Mr Hunt: My response is the one I give many times in Mr Hunt: Thank you, Mr Speaker. To continue, let this House, which is to stress to all those doctors how me say that in this so-called “drastically underfunded valued they are as critical parts of the NHS. We do not NHS”, the hon. Lady’s local hospital—St George’s in see any evidence of the number of doctors joining from Tooting—now has 36 more doctors working in A&E the EU going down. The NHS is one of the best health than there were in 2010. However, we also think that as services in the world, and it is a great place for people a lot of people go to A&E departments with minor from other countries to work and train. injuries and things that can be dealt with by GPs, we need to have GPs on site, and this Parliament we are Dr Whitford: The workforce is one of the biggest planning to have 5,000 more doctors working in general challenges right across the nations of the UK, and practice. particularly in rural areas, as we heard earlier. With a 92% drop in the number of EU nurses coming to the Christian Matheson: In January,more than 1,000 patients UK and a 60% increase in the number who left last year, at the Countess of Chester’s A&E unit had to wait more how does the Secretary of State plan to avoid an NHS than four hours and only 81% of patients had to wait staffing crisis immediately post-Brexit, before there is less than four hours. Now that the 95% target has been time to train anybody extra? abandoned, until at least midway through next year, what guarantee can the Secretary of State give my Mr Hunt: The hon. Lady needs to be very careful in constituents that we will not get a repeat of this next her use of statistics, because she will know that one winter? reason for the drop in the number of nurses coming from the EU is that prior to the Brexit vote we introduced Mr Hunt: On the contrary, we have not abandoned much stricter language tests, as that is better for the the 95% target—we have reiterated its importance. There safety of patients and a very important thing that we is, however, one part of the United Kingdom that has need to get right. We are very confident that nurses will said it wants to move away from the 95% target—Wales. continue to want to work in the NHS, because it is a The Welsh Health Minister said last week: great place to work. “You can go to A&E and be there five hours but have…a good experience.” A&E Waiting Times That is not looking after patients; it is giving up on them. 2. Dr Rosena Allin-Khan (Tooting) (Lab): What estimate he has made of the number of patients who waited Jason McCartney (Colne Valley) (Con): On this more than 12 hours for treatment in A&E in the last important issue of A&Es, does the Secretary of State 12 months. [909355] agree that it makes no sense at all for my local clinical commissioning group to be bringing forward a business 6. Christian Matheson (City of Chester) (Lab): What case to spend an extra £300 million on bulldozing assessment he has made of the reasons for the increase Huddersfield royal infirmary and downgrading our A&E? in the number of patients waiting more than 12 hours to be admitted to A&E in the last 12 months. [909359] Mr Hunt: I recognise the very strong arguments my hon. Friend makes and the strong campaigning he does The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): on behalf of his constituents.