Hospitals

Clive Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I am proud to declare my interest as a governor of the Royal Berkshire hospital. The Royal Berks is an incredibly important place for me. I have been treated there many times, friends and family work there, and my constituents rely on the dedication of its hard-working staff. The way that this important community asset was treated by the previous Conservative Government is a scandal. They have left a record of broken promises and a building that in many places is literally crumbling.

Looking at the Conservative legacy, before the 2024 general election, they introduced a seven-year delay to the construction of the new hospital in 2023. That is a seven-year delay for something that was never funded in the first place. The Conservatives’ dithering and delays have resulted in £7 million being wasted at the Royal Berkshire hospital on surveys, investigations and the development of a hospital programme that was never going to go anywhere, and the Conservatives knew that all the time. Their behaviour over the last five years has been shameful, and they have deceived my constituents.

My hon. Friend the Member for Henley and Thame (Freddie van Mierlo) has highlighted many of the issues at the Royal Berkshire, so I will not repeat his points, but there is a maintenance backlog amounting to £102 million, and staff have recently told me that an additional £300 million is needed for maintenance. Will the Minister confirm that there will be a proper maintenance programme for the next 20 years? I have to thank her for her guarantee that when the Royal Berkshire NHS Foundation Trust requires funds to purchase land for the new site, her Department will provide those funds. I would be grateful if she could confirm that that position has not changed, and also that the planned cuts and savings at the trust to balance its budget will have no impact on its ability to deliver vital maintenance at the hospital site.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call Danny Chambers to wind up the debate for the Liberal Democrats.

Rare Cancers Bill

Clive Jones Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 14th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I have to say, Madam Deputy Speaker, that as I was waiting to speak, I was very pleased that you did not call me after the hon. Member for Calder Valley (Josh Fenton-Glynn) because I do not think I would have been able to get through parts of my speech so shortly after listening to his story; he did really well.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2008, which is relatively unusual for a man, and the hardest thing I ever had to do was tell my two daughters, who were 13 and 14 at the time, about my diagnosis. It was an experience that left me wondering if our family of four was about to become a family of three. I had to explain to all of them that I would have an operation to remove a tumour and I might need another one. As things turned out, my cancer had spread and I did need to have another operation. I also had to say that I would need chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and that that was going to take nine months out of our lives—not just mine, but the lives of my immediate family, my wider family and our friends.

I consider myself very lucky that my treatment pathway was relatively clear, but that is not the case for many rare cancers. The reach of cancer is an evil that is growing across our society with nearly one in two of us projected to get cancer in our lifetime, meaning we all know someone close to us, whether family or friend, who will begin what can be a very traumatic journey. It is a fight that causes your life to be taken completely out of your hands, and that leaves families forced to hear rarely used terms like “malignant” or “metastasised” as if they were common expressions, clouding the horror of medical jargon.

It is with these words that I am proud to associate myself with the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur), and I congratulate him on his campaign that demands better for cancer patients and especially on bringing forward the Rare Cancers Bill, because it is a powerful and necessary step forward to end the experience that I described at the beginning of my speech.

Rare cancers are often under-researched and the regulatory environment simply fails to cope with them. They have smaller patient populations which makes research and investment less appealing and an evidence base harder to achieve. Where clinical trials are taking place, patients often do not know very much about them. A Cancer52 survey of rare cancer patients found that 65% cited not knowing about trials as the main barrier to accessing the trial in the first place. The Bill seeks to rectify those flaws in our system, and I would like to highlight the powers it contains to ensure that patients can get better access and find relevant clinical trials. As was highlighted in the Teenage Cancer Trust’s “Improving Young People’s Access to Cancer Clinical Trials” report, it is also difficult for the clinical trial leads themselves to find the necessary patients, meaning that they struggle to recruit. Both patients and researchers want to be in those clinical trials, but the system does not allow for that common-sense joining up.

I hope that as a result of the changes made by the Bill, people in my constituency of Wokingham and across England will begin to see a shift towards prioritising rare cancers, because such a shift is long overdue. Last week, I met a constituent to discuss his wife’s cancer. She had leiomyosarcoma, which has an incidence rate of six cases per 1 million people annually in the UK. He explained to me that one of the potential treatment options for his wife is exploiting faults in the BRCA2 genes through PARP inhibitors. However, with an estimated 30 new cases of leiomyosarcoma every year and only three with the BRCA2 mutation, there are too few patients to allow for a sufficient clinical trial, and therefore NICE does not license those drugs for that particular cancer.

What are the Minister’s views on efforts within the European Union’s life science industry to develop clear guidance to make cross-border clinical trials easier? If that were to happen, it would address one of the major problems with rarer cancers such as leiomyosarcoma. Individual nations may not have a sufficient pool of patients to conduct a clinical trial, but multiple nations working together could. Does the Minister see cross-nation trials as having great potential for developments in oncology? If the EU were to advance easier cross-border co-operation, would that be something that the United Kingdom could potentially negotiate its way into? This is no time for a Government to be isolationist.

My constituent also highlighted that PARP inhibitors are available in the United States. What efforts is the Minister making to ask that if drugs are approved by the United States Food and Drug Administration, NICE has the opportunity to take the US evidence into account when considering whether to approve licences for drugs in the UK?

Sarcomas are just one tumour type that has poor survival outcomes and limited treatment options. Despite the investment by charities such as Sarcoma UK to fund research into new treatments, we do not know enough about the disease, because so few people are affected. Other constituents have written in to share their experience of losing loved ones to brain tumours such as glioblastomas and to blood cancers. All have expressed hope that this Bill will create a world in which we can better encourage pharmaceutical companies to run trials on rarer cancers in order to create innovative new treatments, so that the pain they went through will not be a fate that others must endure in future.

Before I conclude, it would be a missed opportunity if I did not ask the Minister about the national cancer strategy, which will be so important in ensuring that a long-term plan is in place to deliver better services for patients with rare and less common cancers. The NHS needs to be prepared for the innovations of the future by preparing for an increase in demand for companion diagnostics. The turnaround times for existing tests are already causing delays in optimal treatments. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that there is enough capacity for the ever-increasing demand for diagnostic tests?

The national cancer strategy needs to be thoroughly scrutinised before its final draft is published, to ensure that the measures demanded by cancer charities and patient groups, and ideas from by the life sciences sector, are properly covered. NHS performance must be measured regularly over the lifetime of the strategy to see if improvements are actually being made. Will the Minister explain what accountability mechanisms are being considered for the national cancer strategy?

I thank the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West once again for bringing the Bill to the House.

Accessibility of Radiotherapy

Clive Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Westminster Hall

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir John. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) for securing this debate and for his dedication on this issue. I declare an interest as a governor of the Royal Berkshire hospital. I also have a family member who has shares in a medical company.

Radiotherapy access suffers from geographical constraints, and this issue cannot be solved until the significant workforce challenge is addressed alongside it. The Royal College of Radiologists states that in England the NHS faces a 30% shortfall in radiologists. That figure is projected to rise to 40% by 2028, yet more than a fifth of NHS trusts have implemented recruitment freezes. Shortfalls in recruitment mean that consultants, faced with burnout and impossible workloads, retire earlier. That is made especially clear as the average age of retirement is just 54.

The Royal College of Radiologists highlights the absurd situation whereby newly trained consultants may struggle to find jobs, forcing invaluable radiologists and oncologists to go for locum jobs, move abroad or leave the healthcare sector altogether at a time when their skills are best placed in our NHS to fix our cancer care crisis—a crisis in which not a single integrated care board is currently meeting its cancer waiting time standards.

The impact of the recruitment freezes on patients is tangible and is not limited to radiotherapy. Some 80% of patient pathways in the NHS are reliant on radiology. Delays in scan reporting result in delayed treatment. Delayed treatment results in worse outcomes. Worse outcomes may be the deciding factor in whether someone fails to recover.

How will the Government ensure that when my Wokingham constituents visit the Royal Berkshire hospital, the oncology and screening departments are fully staffed? Can the Minister explain his understanding of the recruitment freezes that are taking place across NHS trusts? I am aware that the Minister has a very, very busy diary: he told me so earlier today in the main Chamber.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Andrew Gwynne)]

I suspect that my diary will be a little busier with the two requests from the hon. Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron).

[Clive Jones]

The Minister’s diary will be a little busy, but I am sure it can cope. I ask him to meet me and representatives of the Royal College of Radiologists to discuss the Government’s plan for workforce reform.

[Sir John Hayes (in the Chair)]

I am delighted to be able to call the Front-Bench spokesmen early, although that does not necessarily mean that they have to go on at immense length. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesman.

National Cancer Plan

Clive Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 4th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Gwynne]

Part of our recovery plan is to ensure that we return the national health service to constitutional standards, not just in respect of cancer but across the board. We inherited a broken national health service and it is incumbent on this Government to fix it and make it fit for the future. Clearly, in areas such as my hon. Friend’s, the NHS needs to be doing much better when it comes to cancer outcomes and cancer treatments, and this plan and this Government will ensure that his local system gets all the support it needs.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I declare an interest, as I have a family member who has shares in a medical company.

I pay tribute to the Minister for following through with his promise for a national cancer plan. It is clearly very important to him, and it is to me as well. Shaun Walsh of Cancer Research UK first raised with me the need for a dedicated cancer plan, and it has been an important part of my work in Parliament since then. Will the Minister meet me and Shaun to discuss the next steps for the national cancer plan?

[Andrew Gwynne]

I am more than happy to do so. My diary secretary, who will be watching this from the Department of Health, is probably having kittens at the amount of meetings. I meet Shaun and the cancer charities frequently anyway, and as I said at the start of the statement, I commend the work that they do in this area. This national cancer plan is important to me, to the Secretary of State, to the Prime Minister and to the sector, and that is why we are doing the right thing and having a plan.

New Hospital Programme

Clive Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 22nd January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Dr Kieran Mullan (Bexhill and Battle) (Con)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered the New Hospital Programme.

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq, for a debate that is very timely in the light of the statement of the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care this week. My remarks will focus on three hospitals that serve my constituency as part of the East Sussex healthcare NHS trust: Eastbourne district general hospital and Conquest hospital, which are situated outside my constituency but are major secondary care providers for my constituents, and Bexhill community hospital.

As part of the new hospital programme announced by the previous Government, Eastbourne district general hospital is due to be entirely rebuilt, and Conquest hospital is set to be reorganised and the structure improved to ensure that it is fit for the future. Alongside creating additional in-patient wards and improved parking facilities, the plans include expanding the emergency departments at Eastbourne and Conquest, improving access to cardiology and ophthalmology services, and redeveloping out-patient theatres, endoscopy and diagnostic services.

Plans to upgrade Bexhill community hospital are also included in the programme, equipping it to deliver more services locally. Currently, only 53% of space in the hospital is allocated to clinical space. Once that work is complete, that will increase to 70%. To reflect increasing demand for care, the plans will also increase the number of hospital beds by 13%, the number of single rooms as a proportion of hospital space from 18% to 70%, and the number of out-patient consulting rooms by 28%.

Having worked in the NHS as a doctor in A&E for a number of years before becoming an MP, I know the difficulties that can arise from working in buildings that are in need of improvement. The physical infrastructure of the building is outside the control of frontline staff, so they often have to do whatever it takes to make it work, but it would be better if they did not have to. I think the Minister would agree that despite those circumstances, our healthcare staff work tirelessly, and we owe it to them to deliver better infrastructure.

Whatever the new Government may say, progress on the new hospital programme was being made under the previous Government, despite the challenges presented by the pandemic and the inflationary pressures on construction costs as a result of the war in Ukraine. The programme was incredibly ambitious but remained a significant commitment to investment in hospital infrastructure.

During the 2024 general election, the Labour party committed to delivering the new hospital programme. Candidates up and down the country made pledges to deliver on the programme, but this week, the Health Secretary broke that pledge at the Dispatch Box by moving the goalposts, as a result of which many constituents in Bexhill and Battle will not see the benefits of the programme until 2039 at the earliest.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I declare my interest as a governor of the Royal Berkshire hospital, and that a family member has shares in a medical company. My constituents are heartbroken by the Government’s decision to push the start date of the Royal Berks’s construction to 2037, which will disappoint patients and staff. The hon. Member must recognise the role that his party played in creating that situation, so does he agree that his party needs to reflect on its part in the delayed new hospital programme, and will he apologise for it?

[Dr Mullan]

It is a 30-minute debate, and I want to be generous in letting hon. Members make short points in support of their hospitals, but I do not want to allow it to degenerate into a highly political back and forth. As I was saying, the Government pledged to do it and they did not.

--- Later in debate ---

[Karin Smyth]

I thank my hon. Friend for her intervention, which highlights the point that the hon. Member for Bexhill and Battle raised about other capital plans and programmes to help his constituents and others over the coming years.

In conclusion, I thank the hon. Gentleman for raising this issue.

[Clive Jones]

rose—

[Dr Mullan]

rose—

Health and Social Care: Winter Update

Clive Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

I would be very happy to write to my hon. Friend to set out the support provided by NHS England to health and care services for his community, and I would be delighted to receive via him feedback from his health and care providers about what Government support they would like next winter and in future years.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I declare my interest as a governor of the Royal Berkshire hospital, and I have a family member who has shares in a medical company.

The Secretary of State has a really tough job of clearing up the mess left in the NHS by the Conservatives, but some of the Royal Berkshire hospital estate is not fit for purpose and especially not fit to cope with the winter crisis. Can he confirm that a proper level of funding will be available to rebuild the Royal Berkshire hospital and that there will be no increase in the seven-year delay announced by the Conservatives in April this year? That will help with future winter crises.

[Wes Streeting]

I will take that as another representation from the hon. Gentleman on the new hospital programme, and I reassure him we will be setting out our review and its conclusions shortly.

NHS Backlog

Clive Jones Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for securing the debate. I declare my interest as a governor of the Royal Berkshire hospital, and that a family member has shares in a medical company.

It is a simple fact that as a result of the last Conservative Government, more patients than ever are waiting for hospital treatments. In October 2024, the national waiting list stood at 7.5 million. House of Commons Library data reveals that the waiting list for hospital treatment locally is seven times worse than it was a decade ago. Ten years ago, 91.9% of patients in West Berkshire waited less than 18 weeks for elective surgery; now that proportion has dropped to 75.5%, which is well below NHS targets and is completely unacceptable. Where is the acknowledgment and apology from the previous Government for the mess they created? A backlog means that people’s conditions worsen, forcing on them more complicated surgeries and leading to slower recoveries, worse outcomes and reduced quality of life.

Many people in Wokingham receive treatment at the Royal Berkshire hospital, which is important to me as it is where my children were born and where my cancer was discovered. Its dedicated staff are the pride of our community, and it employs innovative practices to try to reduce the existing backlog. For example, it has expanded its virtual hospital and is now able to treat 124 patients who would normally be in hospital from the comfort of their own home.

However, the hospital’s situation is continually worsened by a crumbling estate. Some 95% of its lifts are beyond their end of life, and it has had to cancel operations due to infrastructure issues. Today’s announcement that extra investment will be provided to hospitals that cut waiting times the fastest is putting the cart before the horse. How does the Secretary of State expect the Royal Berkshire hospital to meaningfully cut waiting times when the Department is unable to set out the next steps for its urgently required rebuild? I and other Members will continue to pursue this matter until we get Government action on it. Will the Minister please set out when the new hospital programme review will be published?

A rebuild of the Royal Berks is especially important for the cancer centre. Some parts of that building are 164 years old—this is where people who are perhaps in the last years of their lives are being treated. Urgent investment is crucial. I was delighted to secure a commitment from the Government to a national cancer strategy for England, which is a very important step forward.

The Government’s cancer strategy needs to clearly set out how it will improve cancer waiting times and tackle outcomes. I hope this can be done before the Second Reading of my private Member’s Bill on 4 July, but I fear that today’s announcement regarding the 18-week target pits knee replacements against radiotherapy. Cancer affects one in two people in the UK and is expected to increase annually, with 30% more patients with cancer, yet we have a staggering workforce shortage in almost every staffing group, insufficient capacity, and more than one in 10 referred patients waiting more than 104 days for treatment. Is the Minister still committed to meeting cancer waiting times in this Parliament?

Winter Preparedness

Clive Jones Excerpts

Wednesday 18th December 2024 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

As I said earlier, different systems have different issues. Funding has been allocated in advance to the NHS so that it understands which systems require funding, and that has now been baked in for this year. I cannot address the hon. Gentleman’s points directly from the Dispatch Box, but I am very happy for officials to take note of them and to check with the system on what is happening in his particular community. Obviously, it is important that Winchester hospital works closely with its local authority with regard to discharge. We want to improve the better care fund, and I am sure that he will work with the local authority and his hospital to make sure that it works better.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I declare an interest: I am a governor of the Royal Berkshire hospital, and I have a family member who has shares in a medical company.

The Royal Berkshire hospital has experienced its highest increase in emergency department attendances as we head into the winter period, yet the estate of the Royal Berks is crumbling, out of date and not fit for purpose. People with infectious diseases, such as flu, covid and norovirus, cannot easily be isolated due to poor air circulation, which only makes the situation worse. When will the Royal Berkshire hospital be rebuilt, and will the Minister visit it to see the full extent of our challenges?

Finally, may I wish the Secretary of State and the Minister a merry Christmas? They should take a short break but come back quickly to continue to clear up the Conservatives’ massive failures on the NHS.

Lobular Breast Cancer

Clive Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Vaz. I thank the hon. Member for Dulwich and West Norwood (Helen Hayes) for securing this debate, and for her very moving speech. I have to make a declaration of interest: I am a governor at the Royal Berkshire hospital in Reading and I have a family member who has shares in a medical company.

I would like to start by giving my sincerest thanks to Dr Susan Michaelis: first, for her rose, which I have to say I first thought was a delivery of parliamentary stationery to my office—but it was not; and for her passion and diligence in running the Lobular Moon Shot Project. I am proud to have pledged my support to the campaign, which will hopefully change the lives of millions. I will relentlessly champion the need for improving cancer research in this House, because cancer research is so important for securing earlier diagnosis and delivering more effective treatment. However, the existing system has numerous challenges that need to be overcome.

Funding is certainly one of the research barriers, but there are wider concerns that the existing pressures on our cancer and wider health service are acting as a barrier to research. The Government have committed to developing a national cancer plan. This could be a real turning point, because cancer services are simply not delivering for their patients. The Government are determining what the cancer plan will look like, and they are fortunate that Cancer Research UK has already produced a comprehensive report titled “Leading on Cancer”, which sets out some of the key recommendations that they should consider on all matters of a cancer plan. I will highlight some of their points regarding research, which I suspect would significantly improve the chances of making the Lobular Moon Shot Project a reality.

Cancer Research UK makes it clear that the Government’s cancer plan needs to cover workforce planning, and physical and digital infrastructure. That would give NHS services the capacity to carry out clinical research and would reverse the current trend whereby clinical research is seen as a “nice to have”, rather than as something that is deeply integrated into cancer outcomes. Cancer Research UK’s report also makes it clear that long-term planning is important in giving healthcare systems notice of innovations coming down the track so that the adoption and implementation of those new treatments can be planned for appropriately.

The Government will need to support staff with the right kind of training, and provide the right equipment to deliver innovations. They must not fall into the trap of talking only to themselves. The Department for Science, Innovation and Technology needs to work as one to ensure that cancer research is given the priority it needs. The Cancer Research UK report addresses those points in far more detail. I urge the Minister to read it if she has not done so already, and I would be incredibly grateful if she would meet me and Cancer Research UK to discuss its findings.

I pay tribute to the cancer centre at my local hospital, the Royal Berkshire. The King Edward ward provides constituents with chemotherapy, and the Adelaide ward provides care for oncology patients. Its staff are among the very best in the NHS. Can the Government assure me that when they publish their plans for the rebuild of the Royal Berkshire hospital—following the new hospital building programme review, which I fear is already dragging on quite a bit—they will include appropriate digital and physical infrastructure to fully realise and implement new technologies in future years?

NHS Dentistry: South-west

Clive Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Richard Foord]

Dentists need to be rewarded under an NHS dental contract that recognises that not everyone has the same ability to pay. Frankly, if a little money were invested early in preventive measures, some of our constituents would not cost the system nearly so much later.

At a Westminster roundtable on dentistry last year, it was made plain that the issue was about not so much a shortage of dentists, but a need to attract private practising dentists to NHS work. Many dentists, even those who would ideally prefer to work within the NHS, avoid NHS work or leave it, because the current system is not fit for purpose.

On Remembrance Sunday, I was talking to a couple near the war memorial in Sidmouth. They were both veterans. Between them, they had served for 62 years, and they were unable to get NHS dental appointments. They felt that they had dedicated their lives to public service and this was how the state was rewarding them.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. I am sure that the issues in the south-west are similar to, and as challenging as, those in Wokingham in Berkshire. Commons Library data states that only 32.6% of children in Wokingham have seen a dentist in the past two years, compared with a 40.3% figure for the whole of England. Both figures show the Conservative party legacy of rotten teeth, fillings and agony. Arborfield and Swallowfield in my constituency are without dedicated dentists. That simply is not good enough. Does he agree that NHS primary care needs to be properly funded?

[Richard Foord]

I am appalled to hear about those examples from my hon. Friend. The really disappointing thing is that some of the expense of secondary care could be avoided with a little more investment upstream in primary care.

There is a clear disparity between the work that dentists do in the NHS and in private practice. There is so much more emphasis in private practice on preventive care. We need to see that same level of preventive work happening in the NHS.

At an Adjournment debate last week in the main Chamber, it struck me that although many of us were there seeking to draw attention to NHS dentistry, not a single Conservative MP attended. I thank the Minister in the new Government for showing more commitment to NHS dentistry than the last administration, yet we have further to go. The Government prioritised the NHS in the Budget, allocating it an additional £25.7 billion. However, we needed more reference to dentistry in the Budget. The Labour party’s manifesto talked about a dental rescue plan that would provide 700,000 more appointments and, most critically, focus on the retention of dentists in the NHS. We urgently need that.

We urgently need a dental rescue package to bring dentists back to the NHS, particularly in the south-west, where we have a dental training school in Plymouth. We understand that dentists, once trained, often stay where they went to university, so we need more dentists to be attracted to the south-west and to stay once they are there.