Thank you for contacting me about action to support and strengthen the NHS workforce.

I commend the extraordinary work of NHS staff in our constituency and across the country. Day in, day out, they make an incredible contribution to our health service. We owe them our full support.

Despite their heroic efforts, I know that twelve years of Government mismanagement has resulted in record waiting lists for care and chronic staff shortages. Staff shortages are reaching dangerously high levels, when the need for NHS treatment is incredibly high. We need far more than sticking plaster on the gaping wounds of over a decade of neglect.

A recent cross-party report said Ministers have shown a marked reluctance to act decisively on workforce challenges, with persistent underfunding posing a “serious risk to staff and patient safety”.

Without the much needed investment and support for the NHS workforce, health services across England will be unable to recover lost capacity, address growing backlogs or bring down waiting lists.

I couldn’t be prouder of Labour’s plan to deliver one of the biggest expansions of the NHS workforce in its history: doubling medical school places to 15,000; creating 10,000 more nursing and midwifery placements every year; increasing the number of district nurses; and training 5,000 more health visitors. The plan would be funded by reversing the Government’s decision to scrap the 45% additional rate of income tax on annual salaries of £150,000 or more.

At the same time I believe we must focus efforts on retaining current staff, valuing the workforce through fair pay and conditions, enhancing mental health services so all staff can access tailored support, and ending the absurdity of pension rules that force many doctors to retire early.

Putting patient safety and safe staffing levels at the heart of workforce planning is vital for the future of our health service. So to ensure the NHS has the staff it needs, I also support the creation of a new arm’s-length body tasked with producing full and transparent workforce projections, as well as creating new career paths into the NHS.

We must recruit, retain and train the staff our health service needs to bring down record waiting lists and deliver safe, high-quality services. This is not just a moral imperative; it is crucial for the future functioning of our NHS.

Furthermore with a properly funded NHS we will put patients first once again. This means providing face-to-face appointments and seeing the same doctor each appointment for those who want to, as well as making it easier to book appointments through better use of technology like the NHS app.

Thank you once again for contacting me about this issue, I can assure you I will be holding this Government accountable for their failure to protect our NHS.