---

NHS Staffing

I cannot answer the hon. Gentleman now. I shall try to get an answer for him during the debate and, failing that, I shall write to him. However, I can tell him that the health of the nation's teeth and the state of our children's oral health are among the best in Europe. I praise the work being done by dental practitioners in the NHS. The challenge facing us now is to complete the job of reform. My noble Friend Professor Lord Darzi of Denham is leading an in-depth review throughout England. For the first time, we are including clinicians and staff at every level, as well as patients, charities, organisations in the third sector and all the bodies that help everyone in the NHS in developing work force planning. I have the privilege of chairing the work force group, and I am grateful for all the time that has been made available to ensure that the work force of the present and the future—who will take the NHS through the next 60 years—reflect the changing needs and demands of health care in the 21st century. The interim report from the Lords lays out a vision of a world-class NHS that is fair, personalised, effective and safe. The final report is due later this year, and will set out how we can deliver that vision and secure the NHS for the future. I want to pay tribute to the staff of the NHS. In particular, I want to praise the work of all those volunteers who are not classified as staff but who are very much part of the work force, as they have been since the inception of the NHS in 1948. Those volunteers give of their time so that patients get that extra bit of care that professionals are sometimes unable to deliver. In the US, for example, there is no national health provision, and the result is that more than 40 million families there worry every day about how to get the care that they need. We do not have that problem, thanks to the work done by Beveridge and the Attlee Government in 1948. We in this House have a duty to protect the NHS, and to make sure that it has the right work force. The care that it delivers must be safe, progressive and personalised, and that is our goal for the future.