NHS (60th Anniversary)

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, who makes an important point. If my memory serves, over the past year we have seen a reduction of about 1 million in the number of people accessing NHS dentistry. We must recognise that the experience of dentistry that many people throughout the country have is genuinely one of a two-tier system. There are people in some areas who can access NHS dentistry or receive it free, because there are still contracts and dentists available, yet in other places it is simply not available or people pay so much that, frankly, they might as well be in the private sector, because of the costs that they have to meet. My hon. Friend makes an important point, and we need to be realistic. This is a debate not just to say thank you, although that is an important part of it, but to listen to the staff of the NHS. Last week, the Government published the annual survey of NHS staff, ““What Matters to Staff in the NHS””. There was much in it about NHS staff feeling positive about their hospitals or surgeries, and they were very supportive of what the NHS stands for. However, staff were asked, by Ipsos MORI on behalf of the Government, whether they would praise the NHS as it currently stands. Unhappily, those figures were not as good. Forty-three per cent. of staff overall said that they would speak critically of the NHS as it now stands and only 27 per cent. said that they would speak highly of the NHS as it now stands. That is very depressing. Any organisation—public, private or whatever—in which more staff would, unprompted, speak critically of that organisation as it stands today than would spontaneously speak highly of it has serious problems with staff morale and motivation, which needs to be changed.