Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 1st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

The Minister’s answer to my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull East (Karl Turner) was quite frankly unbelievable. The fact is that waiting lists are projected to continue increasing year on year. NHS data shows huge regional inequalities in waiting times. Across the river, at Guy’s and St Thomas’ NHS Foundation Trust, over 70% of patients are being seen within 18 weeks, but in University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust just 38% of patients are being seen in that time. That is not levelling up, so exactly when do the Government plan on getting a grip on those health inequalities?

[Maria Caulfield]

I am disappointed that the hon. Gentleman is not happy with the investment going into Hull that will try to tackle some of those disparities, because we recognise that there are waiting lists.

[Andrew Gwynne]

They are going up.

[Maria Caulfield]

I do not know whether the hon. Gentleman realises that there has been a pandemic for two years. The Government have committed funding for elective recovery. We are investing in those areas that are in greatest need in the country, including Hull. I am sure that the residents of Hull welcome the investment that the Government are making in their hospital.

Dementia Research in the UK

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Thursday 10th February 2022 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

I wholeheartedly thank my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth (Debbie Abrahams) for securing this vital debate, and for the work that she does as co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on dementia. I also thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting the time for the debate. What it lacked in quantity of Members, given that it is the last debate before the recess, it certainly did not lack in quality.

I think there is unanimity on recognising the value of dementia research and on willing the Government to do more. That degree of unanimity is unusual in such an adversarial Chamber as the House of Commons, but we have had a good debate today. I pay tribute not just to my hon. Friend the Member for Oldham East and Saddleworth but to my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South (Lilian Greenwood), the right hon. and gallant Member for Beckenham (Bob Stewart), and the hon. Members for Bexhill and Battle (Huw Merriman), for Rutherglen and Hamilton West (Margaret Ferrier), for Strangford (Jim Shannon), and for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Steven Bonnar).

Dementia is the only condition out of the 10 conditions with the highest mortality rates for which there is no treatment to prevent, cure or slow its progression. Almost 1 million people are currently living with dementia. Every three minutes, someone develops the condition. As we heard very powerfully from the hon. Member for Ochil and South Perthshire (John Nicolson), it affects not just the individual but those around them—their family and friends. Dementia is also severely underdiagnosed, and that has been further exacerbated by covid-19. There is a backlog of approximately 35,000 people aged 65 and over waiting for dementia diagnoses. I would be grateful if the Minister, in his response, could outline the specific measures that the Government will take to improve early detection of dementia. I also pay tribute to the many charities working on dementia, to the individuals working in research and, as the right hon. Member for Beckenham rightly did, to those caring for people with dementia—not just the professional carers, but the massive army of often family carers looking after their loved ones.

Unless we find a prevention or cure for the disease that causes dementia, the number of people in the UK living with the condition is likely to reach 2 million by 2050—a shocking statistic. As we have heard, dementia and Alzheimer’s disease were the leading cause of death in 2021. As the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle said, in 2021, we were in the middle of the covid pandemic and rightly focused on the tragic deaths of people from covid-19-related illnesses, but dementia and Alzheimer’s topped the league table. Indeed, in 2019, 15.9% of all recorded female deaths were due to the condition. This is big, and I know that the Minister understands the severity. Those shocking statistics mean that dementia has consistently, for whatever reason, over a long period of time, suffered from under-investment in research.

Great work is being done in my constituency of Denton and Reddish in Greater Manchester, as it is across the United Kingdom. I pay particular thanks to those working in Tameside and Stockport memory services, who give the initial dementia diagnosis, provide individuals with initiating and monitoring medication, and connect them to support groups in their community. That kind of holistic approach to dementia care is crucial.

Dementia can be cured only with research, however, which is why I am also proud of the work that the Greater Manchester dementia research centre is doing in this field. The centre aims to connect people living with dementia to cutting-edge studies and to the National Institute for Health Research. The centre works across the UK through the UK Brain Health Network, which has researchers in Bristol, Edinburgh, London, Cambridge, Oxford, Cardiff and Belfast, and which aims to bring molecular diagnostics into routine practice throughout the country.

Alongside the wider Greater Manchester “Dementia United” strategy, that innovative work gives my constituents who suffer from dementia the research, support and clarity that they deserve. It is just one example of the really good work taking place across the country. We need world-class research to achieve the best quality of life for people and families living with dementia.

The Minister is perhaps one of the nicest people I have to face—other than you, Mr Deputy Speaker—and I know that he genuinely wants to do the right thing, which is good. He knows, however, as has been referred to on numerous occasions, that his Government’s 2019 election manifesto promised to pour £1.6 billion into dementia research over the next decade as part of the so-called dementia moonshot. There has been huge unanimity in the debate that we want to see that happen. That was a point made powerfully by my hon. Friend the Member for Nottingham South. Over two years on from the general election, we have seen no plans to deliver that funding increase. The latest figures show there has actually been a decrease in Government spending on dementia research, with funding down by over £20 million since 2016. It has gone down by £7.2 million per year under this Prime Minister. That is totally unacceptable. I hope that in his response the Minister will address how on earth that has been allowed to happen.

[Lilian Greenwood]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the reduction in Government funding is particularly concerning, because the pandemic has had a devastating impact on the ability of charities to fundraise? Medical research charities, which fund 51% of all medical research in the UK, have seen their ability to fundraise reduced drastically.

[Andrew Gwynne]

My hon. Friend makes a crucial point. There has been a perfect storm. As we have heard, there is a growing list of people waiting to be diagnosed properly with dementia as a consequence of the covid pandemic, and, as she rightly says, the very research groups doing in-depth analysis and research into this disease are largely reliant on charitable sources of funding, which have almost completely dried up over the course of the pandemic.

[Debbie Abrahams]

I was going to mention this when I wind up, but I could not agree more. Funds to medical research charities, such as Alzheimer’s Research UK and the Alzheimer’s Society, have more or less halved—an awful impact.

[Andrew Gwynne]

Absolutely. This is a crucial point and it is why the Government really must come good on their promises.

I also hope the Minister will update the House and give us a timetable for the publication of the dementia strategy. Patients living with dementia, and their loved ones, cannot wait for the Government to get their act together. We need a plan and we need it to go much faster to develop treatments to change lives. The Government must deliver now on their 2019 dementia moonshot manifesto promise to double Government funding into dementia research. No more excuses: that promise needs to be kept. As we have heard, funding is needed now more than ever in a research landscape that has been decimated by covid. Not only have charitable donations dried up, but a survey from Alzheimer’s Research UK found that more than a third of dementia researchers were considering leaving, or had left, academic research due to uncertainty around funding opportunities.

I want to raise the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham (Ms Brown) in an intervention on the hon. Member for Rutherglen and Hamilton West. She rightly made the point that too often these research projects are not necessarily seen as sexy. We have to make sure that that is not the case, because as I have said, they are so crucial. Labour is committed to doubling dementia research spending to over £160 million a year and to playing our part in finding a cure for this cruellest of diseases. That is a part of our commitment to not only protect but enhance the UK science base and achieve 3% of GDP spending on science and research across the economy.

Patients and their families must be a priority. That starts with dementia research, improved early diagnosis and world class clinical trials. Our goal must be to prevent, treat and ultimately cure this complex and often heartbreaking condition. That is why Labour’s suggestion of a 10-year plan of investment and reform for older and disabled people, including those with dementia, is so important. It would ensure that more people could access care and live in their homes for longer, while being supported by carers paid a proper living wage of £10 an hour.

British people deserve better. We need to meet the challenges of this century of ageing. We need to learn from the pandemic, because there are so many lessons that we can put into ordinary life. We need to treat those who are diagnosed with dementia with the respect that they deserve. This is not a party political point; there is unanimity across this House of Commons. We must redouble our efforts on research for dementia to improve care and support and, ultimately, to find a cure for this dreadful disease.

Future of the NHS

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 31st January 2022 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Gray. This has been a spirited and emotional debate, and one that captures the unique place that the NHS holds in the heart of this nation. On behalf of the Labour Front Bench, I want to personally thank the petitioners and the campaigners behind the petition, because the NHS is more than just an institution. It is an example of the difference that politics, society and individuals can make. It gives us hope that Governments can make real differences to people’s lives, so long as there is the requisite willpower and determination to do so.

Over the last 12 years, NHS staff have had to move heaven and earth just to keep the service on its feet. They have faced extraordinary upheaval, underfunding, neglect and Government mismanagement. I would like to place on record my thanks to all NHS staff, at every level, for the work they have done—not just over the last 12 years and before, but particularly in the last two years, when we were hit by the covid pandemic and the NHS was placed under enormous strain. I am in awe of the work that the staff have done, but I am angry that they have had to step up to try to mitigate the failures of this Government.

Even before the pandemic, the scale of the crisis in the NHS was stark. Covid has compounded the problems, but it did not cause them. Any attempt by the Government to blame covid for the state of our national health service is nothing more than an abdication of responsibility.

This debate is about the future of the NHS, but to understand the future, we must understand how we got here in the first place and how the steps we must take are informed by principles that have been too easily forgotten by the Conservative Government. The NHS is Labour’s finest moment: emerging from the tragedy and upheaval of world war two, the British public decided to put their faith in a Labour Government. British people suffered from endemic health inequalities and squalid living conditions, and were bearing the brunt of decades of public health neglect.

The NHS, spearheaded by the great Aneurin Bevan and Clement Attlee, aimed to change all of that. Many said it could not be done, but it was. It was done through courage of conviction and a belief in the necessity of a service based on need rather than income—a simple principle with revolutionary consequences.

We now find ourselves in 2022, almost 74 years on. If the Labour pioneers who built our health service were here today, what would they see? They would see record waiting lists, an acute staffing crisis, morale at its lowest ebb, health inequalities growing, and a Government fundamentally incapable of addressing their own failings. Yet if they twisted the dials of their time machine to 2010, they would see an NHS in a pretty healthy condition. Waiting times had dropped, public satisfaction was at the highest level ever, and hospitals were staffed at record numbers. In 12 years, that progress has been systematically undone.

The first priority of the next Labour Government will therefore be to sort out the immediate mess that the Tories have left our health service in—once more. That means throwing everything at slashing waiting times and reducing the care backlog, and it means recruiting, training and retaining the staff we need across the NHS and social care. The last Labour Government brought average waiting times down from 18 months to 18 weeks. We will have to do the same again as a matter of urgency. That must all come alongside a long-term plan for the care workforce and wider reforms to fix social care.

However, the Government are doing none of that. Instead, they are faffing around with an unnecessary and distracting top-down reorganisation of the NHS, in the form of the Health and Care Bill, while doing precious little to tackle waiting lists or address the staffing crisis. I would be grateful if the Minister recognised those concerns in his response and outlined what steps the Government will take to ensure that any NHS reorganisation comes alongside a proper plan to address soaring waiting times and critical staffing shortages.

However, the future of the NHS is about more than just addressing the immediate crisis; it is also about adapting to the needs of our population and recognising that health is about more than just surgeries and hospitals. Last week, here in Westminster Hall, I spoke about health inequalities and about how health is all too often viewed as an isolated issue, without considering the external factors that influence our wellbeing. Wellbeing is linked to our communities, our access to green spaces, our mental health, our opportunities and much more. If we fail to consider those influencing factors, our health service will always be geared to address the symptom, as opposed to the root cause of the symptom.

That is why the future of our NHS relies on prioritising preventive health measures. One example of that is Labour’s recent announcement that we would recruit more than 8,500 mental health professionals to support 1 million more people every year. That is exactly the kind of progressive, proactive and preventive policy that the Government should be driving. Such an investment in mental health would mean that every community had access to a mental health hub for young people, and every school specialist support. Wellbeing would be addressed beyond the clinical setting, and the health consequences of stress, depression and anxiety addressed before they reached the hospital waiting room.

So far, I have seen little evidence from the Government that they realise the importance of preventive health measures. In fact, I would go as far to say that the withdrawal of funding from community centres, green spaces and sports clubs over the past 12 years shows that the Government are not sensible and are not serious about preventive health policy. In his response, perhaps the Minister will correct me on that and advise how the Government intend to reverse their disastrous cuts to local services, which have had a calamitous impact on health outcomes.

Our NHS was built to provide security. It was built to recognise that our prosperity is innately linked to our health, and that we all deserve to live long, fulfilling lives—all of us, irrespective of our background or where we have come from. It is an issue of basic respect. To be healthy and have access to care is not a privilege; it is a fundamental right of every human being, a right that we expect the Government to protect and defend at all costs. The job of the Government of the day is to pass the national health service on in a better condition than they found it in when they came to office. I am afraid to say that this Government have failed in that obligation massively.

I am hopeful, however, that with the right support, the right investment, the right approach and the right values—values matter when it comes to our health and wellbeing—Labour can undo years of neglect and equip the NHS with the tools it needs to survive and then to thrive. That day cannot come quickly enough.

[James Gray (in the Chair)]

We have a few minutes in hand so, unusually—although I am told it is perfectly in order—I will call the hon. Member for Middlesbrough, Andy McDonald, to make a brief contribution.

Health Inequalities: Office for Health Improvement and Disparities

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Wednesday 26th January 2022 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Twigg. I add my congratulations to my hon. Friend the Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd) on securing this debate and on the passionate way that he opened it.

Health inequalities are one of the defining issues of our time and are innately linked not only to how long we live, but to how well we live. Every person across this great country deserves to thrive and live a long, fulfilling and healthy life. That principle informed the creation of our national health service and it continues to drive the work that Opposition Members do.

As colleagues have done, I reinforce to the Minister the perilous position that we find ourselves in with regard to health inequalities. The pandemic has exacerbated the health inequalities that were already widening prior to the first lockdown. Indeed, in February 2020 the King’s Fund reported:

“Males living in the least deprived areas can, at birth, expect to live 9.4 years longer than males in the most deprived areas.”

For females, as we have heard, this gap is 7.4 years. That is not good enough.

Worse, the gap is increasing. Life expectancy has had a steady ascent for 100 years. That ascent began to plateau in 2011. Can the Minister advise what she thinks happened in 2010 that led to that abrupt stalling of life expectancy? It is very real. [Interruption.]

[Derek Twigg (in the Chair)]

Order. The sitting is suspended for 25 minutes for Divisions in the House.

--- Later in debate ---

On resuming—

[Andrew Gwynne]

Before I was interrupted by the Division bell, I was about to say that I have seen at first hand the injustice of health inequality. Denton, the main town in my constituency, where I grew up and have lived, is not a very large town. It has a population of 38,000 people spread over three council wards, and its area is 2.5 miles by 1.5 miles. I grew up in Denton West, which is one of the more prosperous wards in my constituency and in the borough of Tameside.

My best friend at secondary school lived in Denton South, which, conversely, is one of the poorest. We both went to the same school. We were two kids growing up in the same community, at the same school, doing the same things, hanging around together. Yet according to the average life expectancies, he will live 10 years less than I will. That cannot be acceptable, it is not acceptable, and it is one of the reasons I joined the Labour party and became politically active. Tackling those inequalities, not just in a small community such as Denton but across the country, is absolutely what we should be about, in order to improve outcomes for all.

The last decade has been a disaster in terms of inequality, and I say to the Minister that that is the direct consequence of political choices that her party has made. It is a consequence of a decline in real-terms local authority spending, a consequence of a reduction in per-person education spending—a consequence of 12 years of Conservative government. The fact is that it is impossible to corral health inequality into one box. As we have heard in this debate, it is closely tied to social determinants: where people grow up, their environment, their education and their disposable income all contribute to health inequalities. If we are to tackle the crisis, the Government must recognise that they cannot make policy decisions in a vacuum.

That leads me to the issue of the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities. I note that one of OHID’s key priorities is to

“develop strong partnerships across government, communities, industry and employers, to act on the wider factors that contribute to people’s health, such as work, housing and education”.

That is music to my ears. It is clearly a positive and welcome aspiration, but three months on from OHID’s launch, we have yet to see any clear indication that cross-Department work has actually been prioritised by the Government. This point has been made by the Inequalities in Health Alliance, an organisation with more than 200 members, including the Royal College of Physicians. The IHA has asked the Government to underpin and strengthen OHID’s work with an explicit cross-Government strategy to reduce health inequalities, involving all Departments, and led by and accountable to the Prime Minister. So far, the Government have been resistant to committing to that.

I would be grateful if the Minister, in her response, could advise us what assessment she has made of the request from the IHA and whether her Department will commit to developing a specific cross-Government strategy. In addition, can she set out how OHID will assess its own effectiveness, and what influence it will have on other Departments? Will she also outline what engagement OHID has had with other Departments since it was established back in October? We need to know that OHID is not just more warm words with very little in the way of positive action. The Government cannot point to OHID with one hand and then, with the other, undermine the work that it purports to do.

For example, last October, the very month in which OHID was formed, the Chancellor of the Exchequer ended the £20-a-week uplift to universal credit. That plunged 300,000 children into poverty pretty much overnight. That political decision obviously has a negative public health impact for people across the country, yet apparently that was not something the Chancellor either considered or seemed particularly concerned about at the time. Can the Minister advise us how OHID will prevent further such disastrous policies from being implemented? If she cannot, I simply do not see how it will solve the crisis of health inequality in this country. I would be grateful, too, if she could outline what role OHID will play with regard to the new integrated care systems. Some clarity on that would be very much appreciated, particularly in advance of the Health and Care Bill’s anticipated return to the Commons in the next few weeks.

Finally, I want to touch on the subject of levelling up and its relationship to health inequalities. It has become somewhat of a go-to phrase for the Government. It should perhaps be a cause of concern to the Minister that, more than two years into this Administration, the levelling-up White Paper still has not been published. On that note, I want to press her on what exactly the Government’s priorities are.

In 2020, Professor Sir Michael Marmot published “Build Back Fairer” in Greater Manchester, which called for several policy interventions from the Government. Professor Marmot proposed investment in jobs, housing, education and services, and made particular reference to tackling the social conditions that cause inequalities at local and community level. We saw local authority public health funding cut by 24% per capita in real terms between 2015-16 and 2020-21. That is the equivalent of a reduction of £1 billion, which cannot be right. We need to restore public health funding to local authorities, so that local teams are able to provide vital services that communities need to stay healthy.

In conclusion, we went into the pandemic with health inequalities already growing, which left Britain’s poorest areas, as well as those in black, Asian and minority ethnic communities, acutely vulnerable to covid-19. That is totally unacceptable. We are now in 2022; we should not be living in a society with such extreme levels of health inequality. It is not right, and it needs fixing. The Government must do more and can do more, and they must do better.

[Derek Twigg (in the Chair)]

The debate will finish no later than 4.25 pm. I know that the Minister is aware of the need to allow two or three minutes at the end for the hon. Member for Bootle (Peter Dowd) to wind up.

Oral Answers to Questions

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 18th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I absolutely agree with my hon. Friend about a unified approach to shared challenges such as covid-19, and that unified approach being the best way forward. Across the UK, we have built the largest diagnostic network in British history and our testing programme has been one of the most important lines of defence, alongside our UK-wide vaccination programme. Our procurement of tests, antivirals and vaccines has been another fantastic example of the strength of the Union.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

“Always try and buy British first” was what the Secretary of State said a few moments ago, but a few weeks ago it was reported that plans to manufacture lateral flow tests here in the UK were shelved because the Government were scared that they might be accused of handing out dodgy deals to their mates. I know the Minister has form on this, but on this point they were misguided. Can he now say to the House that that was not the case and that he was not running scared of a transparent procurement policy, and that he will now do all he can to turbocharge British manufacturing and get British lateral flow tests in the system, so that we do not ever suffer again from those avoidable shortages we saw over Christmas?

[Sajid Javid]

First, I think the hon. Gentleman accused me of doing something inappropriate, and I think that that is not appropriate, unless he has something else to say or some evidence, but it is true to form for the Labour Front Bench, which just constantly makes things up to make false points. When it comes to testing, as he has just heard me say, we have purchased 1.7 billion lateral flow tests since the start of the pandemic. Wherever possible, whether it is PCR testing or lateral flow testing, whenever tests are approved by our independent regulator, we buy British.

Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Self-Isolation) (England) (Amendment) (No. 5) Regulations 2021 Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Entry to Venues and Events) (England) (Amendment) Regulations 2021

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 17th January 2022 General Committees

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stringer. I am grateful for the Minister’s remarks and, indeed, for the opportunity to discuss these important measures. I also want to add my thanks to all those in the NHS and all the volunteers across the country for the sterling effort they have put into fighting this pandemic and keeping us safe.

As we have made clear repeatedly, the Labour party will not play politics with public health or stand in the way of measures that protect lives and livelihoods. As the Minister has outlined, these proportionate measures have enabled us to stem the tide of rapidly rising omicron cases while protecting essential aspects of our day-to-day liberty. They are measures that no Government wanted to take but that it was necessary to take in the extraordinary times we are living in. It is for that reason that Labour did not oppose these measures on the Floor of the House, and we will not do so today.

I would, however, be grateful if the Minister could provide clarity on several points related to these two statutory instruments. The first instrument relates to self-isolation and exempts those who have come into contact with someone who has tested positive for the virus from the requirement to self-isolate, so long as they are vaccinated. The instrument makes provision for those medically exempt from taking the vaccine as well as those undergoing clinical trials.

Alongside this legislation, the NHS recommends that someone should take a daily lateral flow test after close contact with a positive case—one a day for seven days—to protect themselves and others. Given the importance of regular testing in tackling the omicron variant, can the Minister reassure colleagues that the Government are not planning to scrap the provision of free lateral flow tests at this time? Furthermore, can she outline what actions the Government are taking to ensure that we do not face a shortage of lateral flow tests over the coming months? What lessons have been learned from the Christmas period, when many people struggled to get their hands on lateral flow tests?

The second instrument relates to entry to venues and events. It is right that, while we tackle an incredibly transmissible variant, those wishing to visit venues and large events are given the peace of mind that precautions have been taken to avoid mass infection. I am grateful to the Government for taking on board our concerns, including on the option of a recent negative lateral flow test as an alternative to vaccination status, which has made a big difference. We felt that this was a proportionate instrument that enabled clubs and large-scale events to operate while keeping individuals as safe as possible.

I would, however, be grateful if the Minister could clarify some points relating to the NHS covid pass and vaccination status. At the moment, full vaccination is defined as two doses of the vaccine at least 14 days before the permitted entry to an event. Given that research has highlighted the efficacy of the booster vaccination in tackling omicron, can the Minister advise us what discussions she has had with colleagues on altering the definition of full vaccination to three doses, and whether that is something that the Government plan to implement? It is important that she is clear on that as we need to ensure that people are fully prepared for any changes, if there are to be any, and that they are given the opportunity to get that third dose if they have not done so already.

Furthermore, on that point, can the Minister advise what assessment she has made of the booster roll-out for immunocompromised clinically vulnerable and clinically extremely vulnerable people, which has been stalling for the past few months? Will action be taken to promptly address that? As colleagues will no doubt be aware, these restrictions are due to be reviewed prior to the expiry date of 26 January, so can the Minister provide colleagues with an update on how discussions relating to that review are progressing?

I seek reassurance from the Minister on one further point. When the related regulations were debated in the House last month, the Government faced an extraordinary rebellion from their own Benches. Those proportionate and sensible measures got through the House only thanks to Labour support—something that the Government do not always acknowledge on occasions when perhaps they should. Can the Minister reassure those of us on the Opposition Benches that the Government will continue to take public health decisions based on scientific and epidemiological merit, and that they will not give in to any reactionary elements in their own party? That is an important question because we are still in an incredibly precarious position, and the public must be assured that Ministers will always act in the public’s best interests, rather than according to partisan interest, particularly given the vulnerable position the Prime Minister currently finds himself in.

Vaccination Strategy

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Wednesday 12th January 2022 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup]

My hon. Friend is quite right to raise some of her concerns. We need to start from scratch, remembering that it is the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, which is the highly thought of regulator, that has deemed the vaccine to be safe for this age group. As a result, the JCVI provided its recommendations, and our chief medical officers across all four nations added to that. The vaccine has already been given to millions of 12 to 15-year-olds in a number of countries, including 8 million in the United States. Data from those countries shows that the vaccine has a good safety record. I am completely confident that the JCVI would not make those recommendations if there were any doubt at all. That is why all eligible 12 to 15-year-olds are able to book their second jab. It is the best way to protect young people and make sure that they are kept in education. We all know that face-to-face education is one of the most valuable things for young people, and we will do whatever we can to keep them in that position.

We must recognise that myocarditis occurs as a result of covid infection as well. We need to get the balance right to ensure that we are doing whatever we can to protect the majority of young people and make sure that they are kept in education in a timely manner. I think it is right that we continue to follow the scientific evidence and the clinical advice, as we have done throughout this pandemic.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for Penistone and Stocksbridge (Miriam Cates) for securing this urgent question; you, Mr Speaker, for granting it; and the Minister for her statement.

Our incredible NHS has moved heaven and earth during the vaccine roll-out and has achieved an extraordinary amount in the face of profound challenges. As the Minister makes clear, it is only through vaccination that we can begin to contemplate building a world beyond covid. I would therefore be grateful if she explained what assessment she has made of the current vaccine take-up rates, which have dropped to the lowest level since mid-October, and what plans she has to ramp them up again.

Will the Minister also clarify what action the Government will take to drive up vaccination rates among 12 to 17-year-olds, following media reports of children having to wait until February and travel 50 miles to get an appointment for their first covid-19 vaccination? Will she advise the House on what steps she is taking to persuade those who have yet to have the vaccine to do so as soon as possible, and what action her Department is taking to tackle the raft of misinformation about the vaccine that continues to circulate on social media and beyond, doing real damage to public health messages? I would also be grateful if she gave an assessment of the impact on vaccination rates of the introduction of NHS covid passes.

Over the course of the pandemic, immunocompromised, immunosuppressed and clinically extremely vulnerable people have been badly let down. They are crying out for further clarity, and recent reports highlight that more than 300,000 housebound people are yet to receive their booster. Will the Minister take this opportunity to provide the vital clarity that people need and set out the Government’s booster vaccination strategy for housebound, clinically vulnerable and clinically extremely vulnerable people?

Lastly, will the Minister outline what further steps are being taken to vaccinate the world? As the development of omicron shows, delay with regard to global vaccination has stark public health consequences here at home. With reports of the UK discarding hundreds of thousands of vaccines over the past few months, can she reassure the House that assisting with vaccinating the world remains a priority for her Department and this Government?

[Maggie Throup]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his measured approach. We have seen throughout the pandemic that everybody working together gets us where we need to be, which is making sure that people are safe.

The hon. Gentleman asked a few questions about the current vaccine programme and the uptake rate. I am delighted that about 80% of people over 18 have now been boosted, which is a fantastic achievement. Over 90% of the population aged 12 or over have had their first dose and 83% have taken up the offer of a second. I reiterate that the offer of a first and second dose is always there. If people have not yet come forward for their first dose, it is not too late: they can go to a walk-in centre or make an appointment through the national booking service or their GP to get that all-important vaccine.

With regard to 12 to 17-year-olds, the school-age immunisation service has started to roll out again this week. People can also take the out-of-school offer through the national booking service or the walk-in sites. The hon. Gentleman mentioned a case where somebody had to travel 50 miles. We did look into that situation, and it was not quite right. We have been in touch with that member of the public, and the situation has been resolved.

Housebound patients are the responsibility of the primary care network or the clinical commissioning group, depending on the local scenario. Every housebound patient has been offered their booster vaccine now, but if the time was not quite right, or any Member has taken up such a case with their CCG and not had a solution, I would be happy to take the case up on their behalf.

The hon. Gentleman talked about the ambition not just to vaccinate the UK but to make sure that people globally are protected. I am delighted to announce that, as of the end of last year, we donated 30 million doses, partly through COVAX and partly through bilateral agreements, which is a great achievement, and we have a commitment in place for 100 million doses by the end of June this year.

Eye Health and Macular Disease

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 11th January 2022 Westminster Hall

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Nokes. I commend the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) for securing this important debate. We have had some powerful contributions. I pay particular tribute to the hon. Member for Great Grimsby (Lia Nici) for setting out her personal experiences. It is those experiences that make for such an informed debate, and I thank her for putting those on the record.

The RNIB estimates that there are currently more than 2 million people living with sight loss in the UK. Fight for Sight estimates that by 2050 that number will reach 4 million. Without support, ophthalmology services will be stretched to capacity. As we have heard in the debate, eye health and macular disease are important issues. I am grateful to have been given the opportunity to respond to this debate on behalf of Her Majesty’s Opposition.

As has already been made clear throughout the debate, the demand for ophthalmology services has risen at a rapid rate. Referrals from primary care were up by 12% in December 2019 compared to 2013-14. With an ageing population, it is likely that referrals will increase still further. Around 600,000 people are living with age-related macular degeneration in the United Kingdom. Degenerative sight loss not only is physically traumatising but can have a severe long-term impact on mental health and quality of life. Some 90% of vision impairment is treatable, but treatment must be fast and accessible to limit impairment.

Back in 2018, the all-party parliamentary group on eye health and visual impairment published its report, which found that the current system of eye care is

“failing patients on a grand scale”.

It found that services are delaying and cancelling time-critical appointments, resulting in some patients not receiving sight-saving treatment and care when they need it most. The Government promised to consider the recommendations of the report, yet here in 2022, people are still suffering sight loss on an unprecedented scale.

Nationally, almost 35% of patients—more than 592,000 people—are waiting longer than 18 weeks to start ophthalmology treatment. Shockingly, at the end of October 2021 around 28,000 patients in England and Wales have been waiting a year or longer to begin treatment. It is important to note that there is stark regional inequality in access to eye health services. At the Tameside and Glossop trust, one of two that covers my constituency, over 50% of patients wait more than 18 weeks to begin treatment. That is around 15% higher than the national average. Those figures represent individuals whose eye health is deteriorating rapidly, and who are incredibly anxious and scared about what their future may hold. If they do not receive adequate treatment and care, they will suffer a permanent alteration to their vision and quality of life.

The Government have to tackle this situation, because we know that the figures largely represent the state of the NHS before the pandemic. Waiting lists for treatment have got worse because of the pandemic, but the situation was far from perfect before the covid storm hit these shores. The problem in eye health care is not new; for several years, many organisations and people, including Members of this House, have been calling for the Government to act on it. It is too easy to simply point to the pandemic to excuse lack of action. It will not wash with us or with members of the public, who understandably are frustrated and worried about their own treatments.

I would be grateful to the Minister, whom I respect a lot, if she could outline the Department of Health and Social Care’s current assessment of ophthalmology waiting times and what her Department plans to do to ensure that patient safety and care remains a priority over the next few months, particularly given the acute staffing challenges that the health sector is facing.

In December 2019, the getting it right first time programme’s national specialty report was published. The report was endorsed by the Royal College of Ophthalmologists, and is the product of two years of painstaking work. Over 120 trusts were visited across England and several recommendations were made. I am sure many Members are familiar with the contents of the report, but I want to highlight just a few key points that I believe are instructive to the debate.

The two most common medical retina conditions are diabetic and age-related macular degeneration. Despite how common age-related macular degeneration is, it is important to note that macular disease can affect people at any age, including children. The getting it right first time report recommended that attention be paid to improving the accuracy and efficiency of diabetic retina screening. By utilising cutting-edge 3D imaging techniques, we can generate more detailed images of the retina and thereby increase referrals for diabetic maculopathy. However, the report found that in 2019, only 45% of providers utilised optical coherence tomography to refine referrals.

What we do know—I would be grateful to hear the Minister’s thoughts on the recommendations—is that the Government and her Department need to improve access top treatment and referrals for eye conditions. Specifically, I would be interested to hear what the Department makes of calls to train more staff to deliver specialist AMD injections.

I would also like to draw attention to the proposed Health and Care Bill, and specifically its provisions relating to new integrated care systems. For those to be effective in tackling the crisis in eye health, the Government must ensure that ICSs can co-ordinate community optometry and hospital ophthalmology services, to ensure that patients are seen promptly and at the right time. I would be grateful for any clarity that the Minister could give on how ICSs can be best placed to deliver those important changes.

In conclusion, we cannot continue to overlook the challenges that ophthalmology is facing. It is the busiest outpatient service and was under extreme pressure before coronavirus. The Opposition have repeatedly called on the Government to be straight with the British public about the current strain in the NHS and to urgently set about addressing it. We have time and again urged the Government to undo some of their more damaging policies on the NHS. Waiting times have soared and patients have been let down before covid, yet there is no detailed plan, and patients, staff and people across the country are now looking to the Government to deliver on their promise to improve NHS care and to drive down waiting times and waiting lists. We look forward to seeing the detail, but as has already been mentioned in the debate, there needs to be a real consideration in the plan for eye health and how waiting times can be driven down. I ask that the Minister reflects on the points made during the debate, because people who are suffering poor eye health need to have reassurances from the Government that they are doing everything possible to address the concerns of healthcare leaders, staff and patients.

Public Health

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

This has been a passionate debate that has reflected the gravity of the situation. I sincerely thank hon. Members on both sides of the House for their heartfelt contributions.

Since the start of the pandemic, Labour has been crystal clear: we will not play party politics with people’s lives, especially when it comes to something as grave as covid-19. The precautionary measures before us have been recommended by the chief medical officer and the chief scientific advisers and are based on scientific evidence. They are proportionate, necessary and will give us time to get people boosted and better understand the omicron variant.

We have always said that the Government should not have scrapped guidance on mask wearing, and we have repeatedly stressed the importance of allowing people the flexibility to work at home. These measures will help us to have a safer Christmas, as well as protecting our NHS from being totally overwhelmed by the new variant. We are also pleased that the Government have taken our advice and our suggestion to include an option to present a negative lateral flow test as an alternative to vaccination status; I am grateful to the Government for that, and for providing the necessary assurances that the restrictions will not impede any access to essential services.

We have always supported measures that have been necessary to keep people safe. We will not alter that approach, but nor will we pretend that we are in any way satisfied with the conduct of Government Members—the Prime Minister in particular—over the past few weeks. The Prime Minister has done irreparable damage to public trust and has thereby undermined vital public health messaging. We know that, when the country was most in need and ordinary people were doing the decent thing and sticking to the rules, the Prime Minister and his tinsel-clad advisers were making a mockery of the British public.

Neither I nor other Labour Members will let the Prime Minister’s failure undermine necessary public health measures, however, because we know that the omicron variant is much more transmissible and that getting two doses of the vaccine seems less effective in tackling it. The booster jab provides an increase in protection, so it is essential that the boosters be rolled out and that all those who are yet to have their primary course come forward as soon as possible.

Throughout the pandemic, vaccination has proven to be the effective tool against the virus, and that remains the case. We have repeatedly called on the vaccines Minister —the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, the hon. Member for Erewash (Maggie Throup)—to put a rocket under the booster roll-out, but we are concerned about the mixed messaging from the Government over the past few days. In his televised address on Sunday night, the Prime Minister said that people

“will have the chance to get their booster before the New Year.”

However, the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care indicated in his statement yesterday that the aim instead is to “offer” the booster to every adult by the end of the month, meaning that delivery will wait until January or even February. When is it? Can the Minister clarify once and for all whether the Government are rowing back on the target set just two days ago?

We are concerned about the shambolic lack of tests available for people across the country. How do we expect fully vaccinated contacts of cases to take daily tests if they cannot get hold of any? What is more, the regulations requiring vaccination status or a negative lateral flow test for entry to certain venues come into force tomorrow. If people are unable to get a lateral flow test, we have a big problem—I hope the Minister will address that.

On vaccinations for NHS staff, our position is that we want everyone working in the NHS to take up the vaccine. The vaccine is safe and effective and we should focus on driving up vaccination rates through persuasion, education and support. Vaccination not only protects vulnerable patients, but will protect staff from severe disease. The Government must urgently meet the royal colleges, the NHS providers and the unions to agree a framework for how any changes agreed tonight will be rolled out.

Finally, I want to highlight where the Government are still falling short, in the hope that the Minister will take these points on board before it is too late. First, will the Government confirm that we will not waste the Christmas holidays, and ensure that all children who are eligible to be offered a vaccination before the end of this month will have one? Furthermore, will the Minister advise why, more than 19 months since SAGE first highlighted the crucial role of good ventilation, the Government are still failing to act on its advice? With these measures being laid before the House, the Government should also reconsider their position on sick pay provision; nobody should have to choose between feeding their family and doing the right thing by isolating.

I appreciate that no Government ever want to bring in measures such as these, and I fully appreciate the frustration of Members across the House and people across our country that we are here again, being forced to change our way of life to fight this virus, but I am afraid that the alternative is far more serious. If we do not take steps to protect the NHS, it will face a wave of infections that will likely overwhelm it. Labour opposes this Prime Minister and this Conservative Government, but we will support them on these measures because we support our NHS and we support the science; and when we are faced with a crisis, Labour will always put people and the health of the nation above party politics.

Covid-19 Update

Andrew Gwynne Excerpts

Monday 29th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

There are many communities where vaccine take-up is lower than others. That has particularly been the case in the black African community in Britain and in some other black and minority ethnic communities—that has improved significantly over the past two to three months. The same is also the case in many other European countries and the US. A huge amount of work is being done through community leaders and communication campaigns, and by offering access to the vaccine in as many different ways as possible to encourage take-up.

[Andrew Gwynne (Denton and Reddish) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State talk a bit more about the transmissibility of the omicron variant and the efficacy of vaccines on it, given that Australia has some of the toughest entry requirements of any country in the world, yet the variant has basically got through a concrete wall?