A&E Services

Dawn Butler Excerpts

Wednesday 24th June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Reed]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The lesson that the Prime Minister and Secretary of State drew from those episodes was, “When you get beaten in the courts, change the law”—a completely different approach from that of the previous Labour Government.

[Dawn Butler (Brent Central) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend the Member for Brent North (Barry Gardiner) mentioned the distressing figures at Northwick Park hospital, but the Government’s solution was to close Central Middlesex hospital’s A&E. Does my hon. Friend the Member for Copeland (Mr Reed) think that that added to the crisis or made it better?

[Mr Reed]

Everything that transpired in my hon. Friend’s constituency made the situation much worse, as many medical professionals have said.

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) (SNP)]

It is obviously a lively debate on both sides of the House. As someone who is not long from being on the front line, as a surgeon in the NHS, I find it a bit sad to listen to how angry this debate is. The four-hour target should be a tool and not an end in itself. It is used to take the temperature and to understand what is happening underneath. We would not shove a patient in a bath of ice water if they had a temperature; we would look for the infection, try to understand it and try to treat it. Unfortunately, the four-hour target has simply become a stick, and today that stick just seemed to be being thrown backwards and forwards.

People working in A&E face great difficulty, which is why we are not recruiting trainees to A&E and why we are losing senior doctors at an incredible rate from A&E. Instead of being one of the most rewarding places to work, people see it as the most miserable.

[Dawn Butler]

Although the target is used as a measure, or to take the temperature, does the hon. Lady not feel that the fact that it has gone up 401% since 2009-10 is something to be worried about?

[Dr Whitford]

Did the hon. Lady say that the target has gone up 401%?

[Dawn Butler]

The time that people have had to wait for four hours has gone up—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Natascha Engel)]

Order. Interventions should be kept to a minimum. The hon. Member for Central Ayrshire (Dr Whitford) is not on a time limit, but please be aware that many Members are coming in to speak. Thank you.