Jonathan Ashworth MP, Labour’s
Shadow Health Secretary, responding
to the Health Foundation’s warning that NHS workforce planning is ‘not fit for
purpose’, said:
“Theresa May has overseen an
unprecedented workforce crisis in the NHS. This latest warning is the
culmination of an incompetent strategy, which has left our health service with
a shortage of 40,000 nurses, 3,500 midwives and 10,000 GPs.
“For years the Tories have taken
NHS staff for granted and asked them to do more for less, resulting in a
recruitment and retention crisis which threatens patient care on a daily basis.
Evidently the Government’s hope of recruiting 2,000 extra foreign GPs by 2020
looks thoroughly unlikely.
“The public is under no illusions:
a repeat of last winter is entirely intolerable. In next month’s Budget the
Government must take urgent action to secure a sustainable workforce in our NHS
in years to come.”
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