NHS: Financial Performance

Part of Oral Answers to Questions — Home Department – in the House of Commons at 3:36 pm on 12 October 2015.

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Photo of Marie Rimmer Marie Rimmer Labour, St Helens South and Whiston 3:36, 12 October 2015

I agree that the use of agency staff places a great cost on the national health service, and I am sure the Minister will accept that cutting the number of training places for nurses and doctors at the beginning of the previous Government will have had an impact on that. St Helens and Knowsley teaching hospital is currently recruiting in Spain because it cannot recruit here. Recruitment and retention are crucial, and more than 50% of doctors now apply to practise abroad. Does the Minister think it sensible to further punish trusts that are in financial deficit—there are many across the country—by reducing their quality pay if they do not balance the books this year?