Hospitals

Chris Vince Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock]

I am sure the hon. Lady will appreciate the fact that we have now come forward with a programme built not on sand or smoke and mirrors, but on reality, and the hospital she mentioned will be a part of that. She is very welcome to write to me with any further representations.

The situation I have described is the dog’s breakfast that we inherited from the Conservatives. This is genuinely not a partisan point, because when the previous Government did the right thing—for example, on the Tobacco and Vapes Bill—we were more than happy to support them, but where they failed, fibbed, and fobbed off Members of this House, we will not pretend that they were acting in good faith. It now falls to us to level with the British people about why their hospitals will not be fixed on time.

Our constituents are understandably furious, because our national health service is quite literally crumbling. As Lord Darzi found in his investigation, over the past 14 years our NHS has been starved of capital, with a staggering £37 billion under-investment over the course of the 2010s. I know that we will hear today from hon. Members about many examples of hospital roofs failing or falling, leaky pipes that freeze over in the winter and buckets for catching rainwater in corridors, and I know that capital spending is needed now more than ever.

Although we are deeply shocked by the neglect and incompetence of the Conservatives, it has not prevented us from rolling up our sleeves and clearing up the mess that they left behind. That is why we immediately commissioned a review, which had two core objectives. The first was to put the programme on a firm footing with sustainable funding, so that all the projects can be delivered to a realistic and affordable timetable. The second was to give patients a realistic, deliverable timetable based on facts rather than fantasy.

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

My hon. Friend talks about realistic timelines, which are really important. My constituents in Harlow were promised a new hospital when there was clearly no money, no business plan and not even a site made available for it. Does he agree that this work is so important for the trust that we want to have from our constituents? Certainly in Harlow, we have a realistic timeframe and plan that we can actually meet.

[Stephen Kinnock]

My hon. Friend is also a doughty champion for his constituents. With each brick we build in the new hospital programme, I hope that we will start to rebuild some trust between his constituents and this place. He is absolutely right to point out that it is much better to have a realistic programme, rather than one built on smoke and mirrors.

Officials reported on the review in the autumn and set out a range of options for a more realistic timetable for delivery. In January, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care announced five-year waves of investment, backed by up to £15 billion of investment over consecutive five-year waves, averaging £3 billion a year from 2030. Our programme is a balanced portfolio of hospital schemes at different development stages, being delivered now and into the future. It is the most efficient and cost-effective way of giving our NHS the buildings it needs, while also giving the construction sector the certainty that it needs to deliver.

--- Later in debate ---

[Chris Vince (Harlow) (Lab/Co-op)]

In all sincerity, I thank the Lib Dems for bringing the debate to the House. It is fair to say that Labour Members are more than happy to discuss the NHS and the new hospital programme at any opportunity. I would again like to put on the record my thanks to all the staff at Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow. I also pay tribute to the staff of the East of England ambulance service, who go back and forth to the hospital.

I often visit the Princess Alexandra—I actually visited it today—and I see a workforce who work incredibly hard in difficult circumstances. They are a credit to not only my town of Harlow, but the NHS as a whole. As has been mentioned, the new Princess Alexandra hospital was one of 40 new hospitals that only existed in the mind of the former Prime Minister Boris Johnson. When I was elected, I found a project without any funding, without a business plan and without even a site to build the new hospital on. The idea that it would be built by 2030 was an absolute pipedream. The current Princess Alexandra site is too small. The corridors and wards are too small, the A&E department is crammed, and it is literally falling apart. We have seen sewage leaking into the wards and we saw the roof of the ICU falling down. Fortunately, nobody was injured. [Interruption.] My speech is so riveting that I have woken Jennie up, so I apologise for that.

I support the Government’s amendment and pay tribute to the work already done by this Labour Government. Waiting times are down, and we finally have a realistic, achievable and fully funded timetable for a new Princess Alexandra hospital and at least £1.5 billion of investment in our town. In the meanwhile, of course the Princess Alexandra hospital will need funding. I have met the chief exec a number of times and will meet him again next week to discuss the matter. I know that the Minister is already preparing herself for the lobbying she will get from me in the Tea Room next week.

I would like to end my speech on something that there will be consensus on across the House.

[Charlie Dewhirst (Bridlington and The Wolds) (Con)]

Does the hon. Member agree that the new hospital programme is just one part of the jigsaw and that facilities such as Bridlington district hospital and Alfred Bean hospital in Driffield in my constituency are much under-utilised resources? We should be making the most of every NHS facility by bringing community services back into those places.

[Chris Vince]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. As a fellow Leeds United supporter who is celebrating this week, I took his intervention just to have the opportunity to mention that. I add that Harlow Town were also promoted on Monday.

The hon. Member makes a valid point, and a hospital like Princess Alexandra is only part of the jigsaw. Just over the road, there was the walk-in centre, which was sadly closed in 2013. Ideas such as care in the community, which mean that fewer people need to go to hospital, need to be looked at. At Princess Alexandra hospital, one of the biggest issues is the number of people who need to go to the A&E department. We need to consider how we can avoid that and free up more medical staff to do other things, so I absolutely take his point.

I will end on another area of consensus. This is an issue that Members who have hospitals in their constituencies will all be aware of: NHS nurses, doctors and staff suffering abuse at work. I would like to put on the record that NHS staff are absolute heroes and that any abuse, be it physical or verbal, is totally unacceptable. I am sure that that is something we can all agree on across the House.