The All-Party Parliamentary Health Group today discussed the challenges facing our health workforce. The NHS is the UK’s biggest employer, with 1.3 million members of staff in England alone. This workforce is growing, but for several years has not been enough to keep up with demand.

The meeting was chaired by Peter Dowd MP, with speakers Andrew Goddard, President of the Royal College of Physicians, Professor Anne Marie Rafferty CBE, President of the Royal College of Nursing, and Rob Yeldham, representing the Allied Health Professions Federation.

Following introductory comments from the speakers, questions were raised by Baroness Walmsley, Munira Wilson MP and Baroness Masham.

The conversation covered four main topics: rest, recovery and the COVID-19 backlog; recruitment; training; and retention.