Health chief calls for more NHS doctors to be trained in Britain

The chief executive officer of England’s National Health Service stated that the service should train more nurses and doctors in Britain, and reduce its dependence on foreign staff.

Amanda Pritchard stated that more places are needed at medical schools in order to avoid UK applicants being rejected due to course overload.

She added that she wanted to stop spending £3 billion a year on agency staff, and that this should be the exception rather than the rule.

In an interview with The Times Ms Pritchard said that patients were dying due to the standard waiting times for emergency care.

NHS England has more 133,000 vacancies. Staff unions and unions have warned that staff who are overworked or underemployed should leave the NHS or move to English-speaking nations in search of better wages or working conditions.

Pritchard stated that the 7,500 UK-based medical schools each year are highly sought-after with “excellent” applicants being rejected.

She stated to The Times that the NHS would be “very aggressive” in increasing local recruits.

She said, “There is no shortage in demand.”

“Universities are having to turn down outstanding students, not just for their medical degrees, but also for nursing and therapy.

“Obviously, you’re also looking into the ability of universities and the NHS to increase training places. However, over the next few decades we want to be able to more easily rely on our workforce. meet the demand.”

This week’s figures show that accident and emergency wait times were at an all-time high of 55,000 people waiting on carriages for at most 12 hours after they were admitted.

Ambulance wait times were also the longest ever recorded, with heart attack victims having to wait an average of 90 minutes for an emergency room in December.