The Health and Care Bill: an opportunity to future-proof the care that people with Parkinson’s receive

Workforce shortages are one of the biggest challenges facing the NHS and social care. The professionals that care for people with Parkinson’s need years to train and without proper long-term planning, staff shortages will impact the care that our community receives. 

The UK government's Health and Care Bill is a unique opportunity to learn from past failures. Read the full Health and Care Bill.

But as the bill currently stands, we don’t believe it goes far enough to make sure the system trains enough professionals to deliver health and care services that meet current and future needs.

How does this impact health and social care for people with Parkinson’s?

Health and social care staff shortages have long impacted the care that people with Parkinson’s receive across the country.

This has become more acute over the course of the pandemic, with many Parkinson’s nurses and other specialist health professionals being redeployed to support the NHS Covid-19 effort. 

The country-wide lack of neurological professionals is especially worrying, given that Parkinson's is the fastest growing neurological condition in the world.

How can the Health and Care Bill help address these concerns? 

Successive governments have publicly committed to workforce investment and a long-term plan for the workforce, but haven’t delivered.

It is now time to ensure that these measures are put on a sustainable and long-term footing in legislation. 

An amendment to the Bill, supported by Parkinson’s UK and over 100 health and care organisations, has been passed at Report stage in the House of Lords by 171 in favour to 119 against.

The amendment would make it a legal duty for the UK government to publish projections of the NHS workforce gaps in England every 2 years and enable us to hold them to account for training enough staff to deliver vital care. 

Once finished in the Lords, the Bill will return to the Commons for the ‘ping-pong’ stage where the law will be finalised before it gets Royal Assent.

We urge MPs to support and approve this amendment so it becomes part of the Bill.

This will ensure that health and care services have the robust projections of the vital staff the country will need to help make workforce shortages a thing of the past.

What is Parkinson’s UK doing? 

In 2021, Parkinson’s UK joined the coalition supporting this amendment. 

We have briefed MPs and peers ahead of debates on the bill in parliament to make sure that the needs of people with Parkinson’s are well understood by decision makers, and are firmly on their agenda.

We will continue to monitor the progress of the bill as it passes through parliament, and we will carry on working with other organisations who have similar concerns, to push for these changes. 

What can you do?

We are always looking for people to get involved in our campaigns to improve health and care services for people with Parkinson’s. 

Join our Campaigns Network or become a campaigns volunteer to get involved in local campaigning.