Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Social Services – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 12 January 1988.
Is my right hon. Friend aware that there are new facilities at Wexham Park hospital in my constituency that are not fully used because of difficulties in recruiting sufficient numbers of suitably qualified nurses, and that the high cost of housing in east Berkshire is one of the principal reasons for those recruitment difficulties? Will he consider moving away from national rates of pay to allow the payment of premium rates in areas of high housing costs to help overcome some of these recruiting difficulties?