NHS

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Victoria Atkins

Thursday 23rd May 2024 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my right hon. Friend for presenting us with what is happening on the ground, rather than the relentless doom and gloom that we hear from the Opposition. There are excellent examples in our local areas of people not just enjoying working in the NHS, but thriving in it. My right hon. Friend’s general practice will be one of those that have contributed to the 60 million more GP appointments made available in the last year—an election promise that we made in 2019, and have kept. Let me explain the maths to the Opposition: that means more than 1 million primary care appointments each working day. That is something of which we should all be proud, and for which we should thank our GPs.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

May I say how sad I am, Madam Deputy Speaker, that whatever the result of the general election, it will not bring you back to the place that you so wonderfully occupy?

Waiting lists, dental services, mental health services, clinical trials, workforce morale, cancer care, innovative treatments, childhood obesity—whatever the measure, the Tories have failed us on health. Is the Secretary of State really asking the people of this country to vote for five more years of Tory failure, when they can, by voting Labour, vote for the change that the health service, and indeed the country, so desperately need?

[Victoria Atkins]

May I gently remind the hon. Lady that her party leader is a former barrister? I declare an interest: so am I. In the old days, we barristers used to rely on the evidence, but the evidence on which the Leader of the Opposition relies is produced in Wales. He says that it is a blueprint for what will happen in NHS England. My goodness me! As I have said, a quarter of the people on NHS waiting lists are in Labour-run Wales. The highest number of patients who are waiting two years is in Labour-run Wales, and patients wait on average six weeks longer in Labour-run Wales than in England. I am genuinely surprised that, having been in his post for as long as he has, the hon. Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting)—for whom I have considerable respect—has not been able to influence or direct his Labour colleagues in Wales to follow his ideas, if he thinks that they are so good. That is clearly not working.

Cass Review

Debate between Chi Onwurah and Victoria Atkins

Monday 15th April 2024 Commons Chamber

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank my hon. Friend sincerely for that. Again, she articulates the concerns of many families where a teenager or young person may be suffering complex needs and are asking questions of themselves and their place in society. We must treat not just the child or young person, but the family with care and respect, trying to support them to get to the right place for the child.

[Chi Onwurah (Newcastle upon Tyne Central) (Lab)]

Some constituents who have contacted me see in the Cass report a vindication of their long-held views on sex and gender following years of abuse, sometimes violent. Others who have contacted me fear that the Cass review represents an attack on their very existence as trans people and fear the abuse to come. Will the Secretary of State set out that she opposes utterly the toxification and politicisation of questions of sex and gender? Will she also set out that she will collect the additional evidence that the Cass review calls for, without which there cannot be an evidence-based approach? Will she also set out that she will put in place the resources our young people need in terms of healthcare to ensure that they receive the healthcare appropriate to them?

[Victoria Atkins]

I thank the hon. Lady for giving me the opportunity to make it clear again that this report is about gathering the evidence to help support our children and young people to the best care they can have. For a very small number that may well be a medical pathway, but for the overwhelming majority we know from Dr Cass’s report that there may be other ways in which they can be best supported and looked after. I do not want anyone to walk away from this debate thinking that this is somehow a report about those adults who have made that decision of their own free will and are living their lives as freely as we all want them to—it is not. It is about the healthcare and emotional care and support that we give to young people and their families, and the professional confidence we give to clinicians to ensure that we get to the right place for each and every individual child.