Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what plans his Department has to increase NHS staffing levels in hospitals in Hull.

Local National Health Service trusts are responsible for managing staffing levels and recruiting the appropriate number of health professionals required to meet local service need. In the Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, the number of full time equivalent (FTE) staff has decreased by 49 or 0.6% through the transfer of approximately 280 staff from Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust to York and Scarborough Teaching Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust in November 2021. The number of FTE staff has increased by 731 or 10.5% since May 2010, which includes an increase in the number of doctors by 314 or 38.2% since May 2010. The number of FTE nurses and health visitors has increased in the last year by 80 or 3.9%.

Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has offered 146 posts to adult nurse students and 20 posts to paediatric nurse students predominantly from the University of Hull to commence in September and October 2022. In addition, the Trust has employed 340 international nurses since 2018 and are recruiting a further 60 in 2022/23. A schools engagement programme is promoting National Health Service careers to students in Hull and East Yorkshire and a partnership is in place with a local sixth form college to provide a health and social care academy.