Health Professions: Recruitment

(asked on 9th September 2016) - View Source

Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what steps his Department is taking to work with NHS health trusts to identify and resolve problems in recruiting the required number of doctors, nurses and other health professionals necessary for the effective delivery of services.


Answered by
Philip Dunne Portrait
Philip Dunne
This question was answered on 10th October 2016

The ultimate responsibility for recruitment and staffing rests with National Health Service organisations as they are best placed to ensure they have the right staff, in the right place, at the right time to provide safe and effective care for their patients.

Health Education England was established in 2012 to undertake responsibility for the forecasting and planning of future workforce supply, working with NHS organisations to meet their needs. On 4 October the Secretary of State announced that the number of medical training places available to students each year will be expanded to ensure the NHS has enough doctors to continue to provide safe, compassionate care in the future. From September 2018, the Government will fund up to 1,500 additional student places through medical schools each year.

The latest workforce data for June 2016 published by NHS Digital in September showed that there are almost 22,700 more professionally qualified clinical staff working within the NHS than in May 2010. Health Education England data shows that more than 86,000 professional staff were in training as of March 2016.

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