A year ago Jeremy Hunt was sitting on the back benches, and as chair of the health select committee was pushing an amendment to the Health and Social Care Bill – to enforce assessment of NHS, social care and public health staffing needs. He failed but helped to strengthen the case for a properly funded workforce plan and now as chancellor has the chance to deliver it. Has he? No, not yet.
As health secretary (2012-18), Hunt was part of the coalition austerity government that consistently neglected NHS workforce planning, helping to create the crisis that is now producing delays in treatment, suffering and unnecessary deaths.
Now, despite running the treasury Jeremy Hunt still hasn’t removed his department’s long standing resistance to backing a funded workforce strategy. Given his personal stance on the issue and the loud consensus for action, it was a glaring omission from his recent financial statement, but he has turned up the dial on his pledge
Full story in The Lowdown, 24 November 2022