Health Bill

Jim Dickson Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Jim Dickson (Dartford) (Lab)]

I warmly welcome the priority and the additional investment in our NHS over the first two years of this Government. In my constituency, we are seeing positive change with our newly opened North Kent community diagnostic centre, which is delivering vital tests and results for residents in a few short days from a great building with amazing staff.

On top of that, we are seeing major investment in our local Darent Valley hospital, with £27 million being spent on a new intensive care unit. That said, there is still a long way to go to reduce the length of waits in A&E, and the hospital remains in a building that is prone to problems, as illustrated by a recent water outage that lasted several weeks and affected patient care across half the hospital.

Above all, we need Kent and Medway ICB to recognise the speed of population increase and ensure that there is new primary care capacity to meet it so that GP practices such as Swanscombe health centre are able to cope with patient registration numbers—an extraordinary 38,000 in its case. Health infrastructure must be properly planned alongside new homes, and a test of the powers for the ICBs in this Bill must be that this happens.

I also warmly welcome measures in the Bill to provide a single patient record. This new information must drive fully integrated care, the absence of which is causing worse outcomes for my residents. One of my constituents, Frank Fitzpatrick, suffers from severe coronary artery disease and a separate condition that affects his oesophagus, and he has also had a stroke. He has recently received severely disjointed care, including discharge without medication or a letter, unsafe transport, and a lack of co-ordinated follow-up to provide physiotherapy or monitor his range of conditions. The result has been a major worsening of his health and quality of life. We must urgently bring in proper patient-centred care for Frank and so many others.

I have two final concerns. The winding up of NHS England must ensure that more resources are available and that decisions are made at or near the frontline. With the abolition of Healthwatch, independent scrutiny must not be lost. We will need to be convinced that the patient experience directorate, alongside the local service user voice, will genuinely hold the system to account.