Building an NHS Fit for the Future

Anna Firth Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Anna Firth (Southend West) (Con)]

On behalf of the people of the city of Southend and Leigh-on-Sea, I wish to express my gratitude and respect for His Majesty. Her Majesty the late Queen Elizabeth II is still much missed in Southend, but His Majesty has acceded the throne with all the dignity and gravitas that we came to expect from his mother. It was a true privilege to witness the first King’s Speech in 70 years.

I judge all new legislation against my three priorities to make the new city of Southend safer, healthier and wealthier. I am pleased to say that the King’s Speech hits all three of those priorities, although today we are, of course, talking about building an NHS fit for the future. That goes right to the heart of much of the work I have undertaken since being elected. As many Members have done, I welcome very much the commitment to creating a smokefree generation, cracking down on youth vaping, growing our NHS workforce and cutting waiting lists. However, I would like to talk a little about capital funding.

I welcome very much that core spending by the end of this Parliament will have increased from £140 billion to £193 billion in 2024-25. We have invested record sums in our NHS. That is an increase of £53 billion in cash terms, or a 37% increase. I welcome the fact that that includes capital spending of £83 million in the current spending review going into Southend Hospital, with another £19 million set to come on top of that, meaning a total of £102 million into my local hospital since the last election. I welcome that wholeheartedly, but we must do more to speed up the arrival of NHS capital funding.

The House is well aware of my campaign to get £118 million of capital investment that was promised to South Essex hospitals in 2017. The lion’s share of that, £52 million, was promised for Southend Hospital and it is much needed. I termed that money the missing millions and I have mentioned it 11 times in this House. Last year, I got £8 million to secure improvements to our emergency department, and two years ago I was absolutely delighted to hear that the rest, the £110 million, was finally confirmed and would be delivered in full. That will mean a modern endoscopy suite for Southend, an upgraded refurbished main theatre, more hospital beds and an upgraded emergency department: better and faster hospital care in better surroundings for all Southend’s residents and those around who come to our hospital. Better late than never, but we must do more to get that money through the bureaucracy faster than we have managed so far.

That investment will be moot if my constituents cannot get to the hospital. Ministers are aware that last year elderly residents were left stranded literally overnight when First Bus withdrew the No. 21 bus service, literally cutting them off from Southend Hospital. Working with First Bus I managed to reroute the No. 3 bus, but that is not good enough because it runs only once every two hours. I reiterate the need to restore that bus service. I am delighted that, working with the previous Roads Minister, bus funding of almost £1 million is now coming to Southend over two years, which should help to protect and enhance local bus services, including getting the No. 21 back. I am now looking forward very much to working with the new Roads Minister—as soon as I know who that is!

Money is not the be all and end all for the future of our NHS. We are investing record sums, but what we need to 100% focus on religiously is reform and prevention. Here, I want to talk about something called the fracture liaison service. I recently visited the fracture clinic at Southend Hospital, which is to launch a new fracture liaison service in spring next year, with the support of the Mid and South Essex integrated care board. This will be the first fracture liaison service in the UK to have a single FLS across an entire area, supporting consistent care across Mid and South Essex. In our region, there are an estimated 8,000 to 10,000 fragility fractures every year in adults aged 50 or over, often causing patients to spend extended periods in hospital, taking up hospital beds and staff time. Over five years, the new Southend FLS is expected to prevent 550 fractures, saving half a million pounds and 1,300 bed days every single year. If that is scaled up nationally, we will be saving 74,000 osteoporotic fractures and releasing 750,000 hospital bed days. Services like this are truly the future of the NHS. Their benefits are unquestionable. I look forward to seeing all regions following our lead in Southend to deliver savings and free up beds across the board.

On waiting lists, I was extremely disappointed to see The Times reporting erroneously that Southend is England’s NHS waiting list hotspot. The number quoted on waiting lists did not include the total catchment population for Mid and South Essex, where waiting lists today sit at approximately one in seven people, not one in five as was quoted. It is disappointing to see prestigious leading national newspapers irresponsibly pumping out the wrong information and not getting their facts straight.

Of course I am not happy for any of my constituents to wait longer than they should, but we must recognise that industrial action has played a part in the extension of waiting lists across the NHS. Mid and South Essex NHS Foundation Trust has a recovery plan, and provided that there is no further industrial action it will virtually eliminate 65-week waits—except in the case of some specialist services—by next March. However, we must have sustainable staffing in order to cut waiting lists, which is why I welcome the proposal to deliver the NHS long-term workforce plan. Like others, I also welcome the commitment to creating a new smoke-free generation. That will save thousands of lives, and it goes without saying that a healthier future for our children means a more sustainable NHS.

Community pharmacies are already saving 619,000 GP appointments every week—roughly 32 million a year—and removing the need for about 3.5 million people a year to visit A&E departments and walk-in centres. Given such staggering results, we must surely consider moving more health services out of hospitals and into the community.

[Mr Jayawardena]

Is it not also important for us to educate the public so that they know how much they can obtain from their local pharmacies rather than always relying on GP appointments or, indeed, associated professionals?

[Anna Firth]

I entirely agree with my hon. Friend, and he has brought me neatly to my next point. The brilliant Belfairs and French’s pharmacies in Leigh-on-Sea are run by an inspirational pharmacist, Mr Mohamed Fayyaz Haji, known as Fizz. The range of services that those pharmacies deliver is incredible, including cholesterol and blood pressure checks, health advice and prescribing, and they are now expanding into primary and community care, from ear syringing to community phlebotomy, earlier diagnosis measures such as measuring prostate-specific antigen levels to test for prostate cancer, electrocardiograms, ultrasound screening for sports injuries, and services for pregnant women. This is a model for community pharmacy care around the country that will keep people out of hospitals unless they really need to be there.

I am delighted that one of my key campaigns has made it into the King’s Speech. My campaign to ban all forms of zombie knives will be enacted through the criminal justice Bill, which will increase the maximum penalty for those who sell dangerous weapons to under-18s and create a criminal offence of possession of a bladed article with intent to cause harm. Being stabbed is the No. 1 fear for young people in Southend for the second year in a row, and I welcome the fact that the Bill will make our streets in Southend safer.

I see you looking at me, Madam Deputy Speaker, so I will summarise my next few points. Bleed kits must be rolled out, because the first person to reach a stab victim is often not an ambulance driver but someone from a pub, a club or a police car. If we support Julie Taylor’s award-winning campaign and roll out those bleed kits, we will save more lives.

No speech from me would be complete without my mentioning Southend United. I wholeheartedly welcome the football governance Bill, which will deliver a more sustainable future for football clubs such as Southend for generations to come.

I believe that this King’s Speech will deliver a healthier future, a stronger economy, and a safer future for all the residents of Southend and Leigh-on-Sea, especially children, and I look forward to voting for it later this week.

[Several hon. Members rose—]