Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is proposing the biggest training expansion in the history of the UK’s National Health Service as he contends with industrial action from staff and record waiting lists for treatment.
The NHS doesn’t train enough doctors and nurses which leaves the UK relying “too much on attracting talented people from overseas rather than recruiting at home,” Sunak wrote in the Sunday Times newspaper. Technology such as artificial intelligence can also help, he said.
Cutting waiting lists is one of Sunak’s key pledges as his government faces ongoing industrial action over pay from health workers. Nurses and paramedics have staged walkouts while junior doctors in England will strike for five consecutive days over pay next month — the longest such action in the history of the NHS, according to the British Medical Association.
“It will be a 15-year plan to give the NHS certainty, because we recognise it takes time to train these staff, who are among the most highly skilled in our society,” Sunak wrote. “It will ensure we train, retain, reform and make the most of our talented and experienced staff.”
Read more: Only Labour Can Fix the NHS, Says Boris Johnson’s Vaccine Czar
More details on the government’s so-called NHS Long Term Workforce Plan will be announced later this week, Sunak said.
The ruling Conservatives trail the opposition Labour party by 25 percentage points, according to the latest YouGov poll.
