Winter Preparedness
Debate between Helen Morgan and Nusrat Ghani(5 days, 18 hours ago)
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Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
I express my thanks and those of my Lib Dem colleagues to everyone working over the Christmas period to keep people healthy and safe. Preparedness for winter is absolutely critical for our health and care system, and a quick look at what happened last year shows us why. Ambulances across England collectively spent a total of 112 years waiting outside hospitals to hand patients over, and a quarter of a million people waited more than 12 hours to be seen. Every winter we are warned of a winter crisis. Under the Conservatives, crisis became the norm not just in winter but all year round.
This year is very concerning so far. A&Es have overflowed through spring, summer and autumn. At my local hospital trust, Shrewsbury and Telford, one in three ambulances have had to wait more than an hour to hand over patients, while patients with devastating cancer diagnoses have had to wait months for crucial scan results. Across England, more than 7 million people are on waiting lists. Meanwhile, I am afraid, we have not heard enough from the Government on fixing one of the root causes of this crisis, which is our broken social care system.
The scale of the crisis is demonstrated by the challenges facing ambulance services across the country at the moment. October—before the winter—was the third worst month ever for handover delays at West Midlands ambulance service, which covers my constituency. The equivalent of 130 ambulance crews are out of action, waiting every single day. Now these overstretched ambulance services are formally changing their advice to reflect the pressure they are under. At times of peak demand, even category 2 patients—those suffering a heart attack or a stroke—will be asked to make their own way to a hospital. People in North Shropshire have long had to put up with some of the worst ambulance waits in the country, and they have come to harm as a result. It may no longer be the case that they can rely on an ambulance arriving.
Action is urgently needed to prevent more preventable deaths this winter. I am sure the Minister shares my alarm that ambulances may not be reaching people facing life-threatening situations. If she does, will she commit today to the Government tackling the handover delays paralysing the ambulance service by accepting Liberal Democrat proposals to make a £1.5 billion fund to provide more staffed beds, and by agreeing to urgent cross-party talks to fix the crisis in social care?
NHS Performance: Darzi Investigation
Debate between Helen Morgan and Nusrat Ghani(2 months, 2 weeks ago)
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Helen Morgan
I thank the right hon. Gentleman for his intervention. There is a general problem with care in the community of all types not being there for people. We have people in places where they will not get better as quickly—in some cases, their situation may be deteriorating—because that care is not available. Mental health provision in my constituency is absolutely appalling. People register with a doctor over the border just to access better mental health care. I could not agree with him more.
In conclusion, the Darzi report is shocking, but it is not surprising based on the experience of my constituents. Poor access to primary care—whether that is GPs, dentists or early mental health intervention—is leaving people in pain and distress. Long waiting lists and crumbling hospitals are leaving people unable to get back to work, with their situation deteriorating, and the crisis in social care—the elephant in the room—is depriving people of their independence and leaving them in hospital when they could be at home. The new Government must make fixing the NHS and care their No. 1 priority. Liberal Democrats will be here to provide constructive opposition to ensure that they do.
Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)
I call Ben Goldsborough to make his maiden speech.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Helen Morgan and Nusrat Ghani(10 months, 4 weeks ago)
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Ms Ghani
I am more than happy to sit down with the hon. Member to discuss furthering his case, but the overriding fact, which he mentioned, is that the decision sits with the Scottish Government. In the UK we have the National Shipbuilding Office, which provides a wraparound service not only to secure contracts but to ensure that ships are built in UK shipyards.
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
Tata Steel: Port Talbot
Debate between Helen Morgan and Nusrat Ghani(1 year, 3 months ago)
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Ms Ghani
Any change will be challenged by those potentially affected, which is why the transition board is being set up with a budget of £100 million to ensure that people who are impacted are given the support that they need. It is hard not to go on repeating that this has not come out of the blue, and that discussions have been taking place forever. I speak to the hon. Member regularly about this matter. I know that it is difficult for her to reflect on it in the Chamber, but we finally have some certainty. She mentioned that no decision had been made for what seemed like forever, but this is a really good decision: it is protecting jobs, it is protecting the industry next to her constituency, and it is ensuring that there is a future for steel at Port Talbot. It is good news, although we know that there is some difficulty, which is why, as I have said, we are establishing a transition board.
The hon. Lady also mentioned the unions. They were in Westminster recently, attending a huge event co-hosted by our fantastic iron lady, or rather steel lady, my hon. Friend the Member for Scunthorpe (Holly Mumby-Croft), as well as UK Steel. There was a presentation of the procurement policy note, but also a discussion about the road map to net zero. This is a route that was identified, and it is one that we have now taken to ensure the longevity of steelmaking in Port Talbot.
Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)
The green transition should present exciting opportunities to build a fair, more prosperous economy for the benefit of communities across the UK, but the job losses involved here highlight that, for some workers, when the industrial landscape shifts around them there might not be an opportunity to benefit from those opportunities. They need to be supported to train and retrain throughout their adult lives, so will the Minister take this opportunity to commit to the development of a national skills strategy?
Ms Ghani
That is a sensible point. There are skills strategies in lots of different portfolios within industry, and in these particular circumstances, as I mentioned, a transition board will be stood up with £100 million to do exactly that—to ensure that people are redeployed and reskilled so that they can continue to work in the sector.