"My Lords, we hear a lot in this House about the recruitment of doctors and nurses. However, any organisation facing the kind of challenges confronting the NHS would ordinarily be doing its utmost to retain its talent. The NHS, in many ways, seems to be doing the opposite. When will …..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, the recent welcome inroads into NHS waiting lists are now being reversed. What plans do the Government have to ensure that, as Covid pressures mount, over the winter in particular, crucial NHS services and diagnoses are sustained—particularly, for example, early diagnoses of cancers?..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, how are the Government measuring and reporting retention levels of clinical staff in the NHS? This is one of the ways that will enable us to assess the effectiveness of the measures the Minister has said the Government are putting in place...." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, early diagnosis is key to successful outcomes in all kinds of cancer. In the long-term plan the Government set out an ambitious target for increasing the early diagnosis of most cancers. Can the Minister tell the House what impact Covid, the subsequent backlog and the shortage of clinicians …..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"Could the Minister tell us what impact Covid, with its backlog and the shortage of NHS clinicians, is having on how the target is being measured and reported?..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, this issue, like many across the NHS, is exacerbated by what the Financial Times today referred to as a workforce crisis. When will the Government take urgent action to stem the large and increasing outflow of trained medical personnel that is proving so debilitating to the provision of …..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, I add my own warm congratulations to my noble friend Lord Stevens of Birmingham on his excellent maiden speech.
One of the most dispiriting and dislocating experiences that any large organisation can suffer is to be subjected to repeated waves of substantial reorganisation. It diverts attention away from …..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, an exacerbating factor in the size of waiting lists more generally is the number of patients referred unnecessarily to secondary care specialists. One way of addressing this problem is to make more time available to GPs to investigate patients’ symptoms more carefully. Does the Minister agree that, in …..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, we urgently need better flows of clinical data between different parts of the NHS, but the public are understandably anxious, given the well-publicised data leaks and thefts of recent years, and particularly given that the proposed scheme is not limited to the NHS but includes external third-party commercial …..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech
"My Lords, despite additional Covid funding, many NHS trusts are having to cut back on crucial capital investment programmes because of increased financial pressure. For example, some hospitals are having to replace obsolete and ineffective scanners with slightly newer but far from up-to-date models. Does the Minister agree that when …..." Lord Stirrup - View Speech