HC Deb 20 January 2004 vol 416 cc1213-4
15. Mr. Barry Gardiner (Brent, North)(Lab)

How many general practitioners are in training; and what the equivalent figure was in 1997. [148799]

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton)

There were 2,157 general practitioners in training in June 2003 compared with 1,343 in October 1997. That is an increase of 60 per cent.

Mr. Gardiner

I am sure that, like me, my right hon. Friend wishes to pay tribute to the general practitioners who came here in the 1970s from east Africa—Indian doctors who provided the backbone of the national health service. They are now approaching retirement. In the next five years, especially in towns where there was a large immigration of those doctors in the early 1970s, there will be a genuine problem. Will my right hon. Friend do all that he can, not only to pay tribute to those people who gave their lives to the NHS but to ensure that more doctors from the Indian sub-continent and elsewhere can come into the NHS and use their skills here for its benefit?

Mr. Hutton

I certainly join my hon. Friend in paying tribute to the work of doctors in the NHS. They have done a brilliant job over many decades—indeed, many continue to do that—and we all owe them a significant vote of thanks. My hon. Friend is right that in many parts of Britain they are the backbone of primary care in the NHS. He knows the steps that Brent primary care trust has taken to expand primary care in his constituency, and I hope that he can support them. The NHS in London faces specific challenges in expanding primary care—he will be aware of that. The major capital investment programme—£350 million for London primary care services in the next two years—will help to resolve some of the difficulties that he described.

We are examining carefully the regulations about who can practise here, to facilitate wider entry into the NHS in England, but above all, we must keep the investment flowing into it. That is the sure way to ensure that we can provide the service that our constituents and patients want. We should not follow the advice of others, who would like investment in the NHS to be cut by 20 per cent.