On the campaign trail, Ms. Duffield claimed that vote for Labour was a vote to stop the closure of more of the NHS and vowed to fight for the Kent and Canterbury hospital and “enact real change” but from Monday June 19th, the hospital’s urgent care services will be scaled back. This is meant to be a temporary measure due to the shortage of consultants to supervise the training of junior doctors.
Ms. Duffield will soon get her chance to prove that she can deliver because on Friday 16th June 2017 at 7pm, the Concern for Health in East Kent (CHEK) is hosting a public meeting at Canterbury Academy to discuss the future of the hospital.
However, the question that will be on the minds of Canterbury residents is how much can their new MP realistically do to ensure that these changes do not lead to a future downgrade?
The consultant shortage at Kent and Canterbury hospital is symptomatic of the ongoing NHS staffing crisis. Last year’s Brexit vote appears to have had an aggravating effect. The Health Foundation’s freedom of information request revealed a 96% drop in EU nurses registering to work in the UK since the Brexit vote last year. This is significant since, according to a House of Commons Briefing Paper published in April, 5.5% of NHS staff are from the EU. A further 12.5% are from outside of the EU.
A Canterbury resident who visited the hospital last week for treatment reports that 4 of the 6 medical professionals she was seen by were foreign. She also observed that the lone British doctor she was treated by talked of his plans to move to Australia to take up a better-paying position in a hospital there.
Like her predecessor, Sir Julian Brazier, Ms. Duffield may unfortunately be unable to follow through on her promise especially since Labour did not become the new government. The Tories are in the process of forming a coalition with the DUP and the 2017 Tory manifesto pledged to reduce net migration to less than 100,000 despite, according to the think-tank Global Future, a net migration figure of over 200,000 is necessary tackle the NHS staffing crisis.
On Friday, it should become clear how Ms. Duffield plans to tackle these complex problems which her predecessor was unable to solve after 30 years as MP.