Hunt: keeping EU workers in NHS is top priority

ALLOWING NHS workers from the European Union to stay in the UK after Brexit is the top priority in negotiations, the Health Secretary has said.

In his first speech since being reappointed following the election, Jeremy Hunt said about 150,000 EU citizens were working in the health and care sector. “We need them, we want them to stay,” he said. “They are part of the NHS family. It’s an early priority for this Government to secure rights which we would like to be broadly the same as the rights that they have now – and I want to reassure them now that this will be absolutely top of our list as the Brexit negotiations start later this month.”

He told the NHS Confederation annual conference in Liverpool he was sympathetic to pleas for a pay rise for “brilliant” nurses. Mr Hunt said he intended to speak to the Chancellor about pay rises for 1.3 million workers.

Health chiefs also announced plans to end the “fractured” health and social care system by making GPS, hospitals and councils work more closely together. The plans include a “devolution” deal for Surrey which means the NHS and council will have more control over their spending.