Funding of £15 million this year will help increase international recruitment of care workers. The funding will enable local areas to support care providers with activities such as visa processing, accommodation and pastoral support for international recruits. This will complement a national domestic recruitment campaign, which will launch shortly.
The Health and Social Care Secretary acknowledged the scale of the challenges facing the NHS in the wake of the pandemic and the plan for patients builds on the NHS Winter Plan, including the rollout of COVID boosters and flu jabs already underway to help protect the most vulnerable. The plan sets out actions to ensure the best possible care for patients under each of her A, B, C and D priority areas – ambulances, backlogs, care, and doctors and dentists.
Prime Minister Liz Truss said:
On the steps of Downing Street this month, I pledged that one of my earliest priorities as Prime Minister would be to put our health and care system on a firm footing.
These measures are the first part of that plan and will help the country through the winter and beyond. Ultimately my mission in government is to grow our economy, because that is the best way to support the NHS and social care system and ensure patients are receiving the frontline services they deserve.
