Oral Answers to Questions

Chris Stephens Excerpts

Tuesday 14th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Chris Stephens (Glasgow South West) (SNP)]

7. What recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the health and social care sector.

[Martyn Day (Linlithgow and East Falkirk) (SNP)]

20. What recent assessment his Department has made of the effect of the UK leaving the EU on the health and social care sector.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr Philip Dunne)]

We are fully engaged with the highest level of Government work on Brexit. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State is a member of the Cabinet Committee on Brexit, and he is engaged on all areas where Brexit may impact the health and social care sector. We are actively considering the Brexit implications for the UK on workforce, medicine and equipment regulation, reciprocal healthcare, life sciences, public health, research, trade and data.[Official Report, 21 November 2017, Vol. 631, c. 5MC .]

[Chris Stephens]

Is the Minister aware of the latest figures released this month by the Nursing & Midwifery Council? The figures confirm a clear trend: an 11% increase in the number of UK-trained nurses and midwives leaving the register, alongside an 89% drop in those coming to work in the UK from Europe. Does the Minister agree with the chief executive of the Royal College of Nursing that

“These dramatic figures should set alarm bells ringing in Whitehall and every UK health department”?

[Mr Dunne]

It is the case that we have been reliant for much of the increase in clinicians in this country on doctors and nurses coming from the EU, so a reduction in that increase is something we are watching carefully. I gently say to the hon. Gentleman that the last figures we have show that, as of the end of June, there were 3,193 more clinicians working in the NHS in England than there were in June 2016.[Official Report, 21 November 2017, Vol. 631, c. 6MC.]