This afternoon at just after midday, David Cameron clashed with Ed Miliband over the impending A&E crisis.
The Labour Party have issued a broadcast as follows:
One of the exchanges was particularly revealing – also in demonstrating that David Cameron doesn’t know the brief well of an important contemporary issue in English health policy.
The exchange has been reported in Hansard today as follows:
Edward Miliband:The Prime Minister is giving P45s to nurses and six-figure payoffs to managers. Can he tell us how many of the people who have been let go from the NHS have been fired, paid off and then re-hired?
The Prime Minister:First, we are saving £4.5 billion by reducing the number of managers in our NHS. For the first time, anyone re-employed has to pay back part of the money they were given. That never happened under Labour. We do not have to remember Labour’s past record, because we can look at its record in Wales, where it has been running the health service. It cut the budget by 8.5%, it has not met a cancer target since 2008, and it has not met an A and E target since 2009. The fact is that the right hon. Gentleman is too weak to stand up to the poor management of the NHS in Wales, just as he is too weak to sack his shadow Health Secretary.
Edward Miliband:And we have a Prime Minister too clueless to know the facts about the NHS. Let us give him the answer, shall we? The answer is that over 2,000 people have been made redundant—[Interruption.] The hon. Gentleman says it is rubbish; it is absolutely true—we have a parliamentary answer from one of the Health Ministers. Two thousand people have been made redundant and re-hired, diverting money from the front line as this Prime Minister sacks nurses. [Interruption.] The Prime Minister seems to be saying it is untrue; well, if he replies he can tell me whether it is untrue. We know why the NHS is failing: his botched reorganisation, the abolition of NHS Direct, cuts to social care, and 6,000 fewer nurses. There is only one person responsible for the A and E crisis, and that is him.
Unknown to Cameron, @andyburnhammp had asked exactly the same question as @Ed_Miliband asked in #pmqs and got a reply.
The reference for this Q/A is: http://bit.ly/1ejPr3Q
Andy Burnham: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS staff have been made redundant and subsequently re-employed by NHS organisations on a (a) permanent basis and (b) fixed-term contract basis since May 2010. [147768]
Dr Poulter: The number of NHS staff made redundant in the NHS since 1 May 2010 and subsequently re-employed by NHS organisations on a (a) permanent basis is estimated to be 1,300 and (b) fixed-term contract basis is estimated to be 900.
These estimates are based on staff recorded on the Electronic Staff Record (ESR) Data Warehouse as having a reason for leaving as either voluntary or compulsory redundancy between 1 May 2010 and 30 September 2012, and who have a subsequent record on the ESR Data Warehouse up to 30 November 2012.
In April 2010 there were 42,515 full-time equivalent (FTE) managers. Between April 2010 and November 2012 this figure has reduced by 6,905 to 35,610 FTE.
The ESR Data Warehouse is a monthly snapshot of the live ESR system. This is the HR and payroll system that covers all NHS employees other than those working in General Practice, Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust and Chesterfield Royal Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, and some NHS staff who have transferred to local authorities and social enterprises.
Thanks to @DrEoinCl for finding this.
On the sensitive issue of how many people who had been made redundant were later appointed by the NHS, which David Nicholson was asked about yesterday, David Cameron attempted a bluster with no real avail.
