Labour responds to NHS figures showing 110,000 staff vacancies in the NHS - the highest figure since before the pandemic

Wes Streeting MP, Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, responding to figures from NHS England published today, showing there are 110,000 staff vacancies in the NHS, the highest figure since before the pandemic, said:

“The Conservatives’ scrapping of the nursing bursary and failure to fix staffing shortages has been disastrous for the NHS, and patients are paying the price.

“NHS staff do heroic work but there simply aren’t enough of them. Yet the Government still has no plan to fill these positions, meaning patients will continue to wait unacceptable lengths of time for treatment. The longer we give the Conservatives in office, the longer patients will wait.

“Labour will recruit, train and retain the staff the NHS needs to treat patients on time.”

Ends

Notes

Vacancy figures can be found here:

https://digital.nhs.uk/data-and-information/publications/statistical/nhs-vacancies-survey/april-2015---december-2021-experimental-statistics