Oral Answers to Questions
Joe Morris Excerpts(1 week, 4 days ago)
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Wes Streeting
This is unusually consensual today. The Government are committed to rolling out fracture liaison services across every part of the country by 2030. I promised that before the election, and that is what we are delivering. In fact, we have already started by investing in 14 hi-tech DXA—dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry—scanners, which are expected to provide an extra 29,000 scans to ensure that people with bone conditions get diagnosed earlier. I note that the shadow Secretary of State does not want to look to the past—I am not surprised, given the Conservatives’ record—but I am sure that we can work together in the future.
Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)
The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)
I holidayed in my hon. Friend’s constituency this summer—it is a very beautiful part of the world—so I understand some of the rural challenges. It is a matter for local integrated care boards how they organise ambulance services. There are many problems that we want to resolve, and I would of course be very happy to meet him.
Access to Primary Healthcare
Joe Morris Excerpts(4 months ago)
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Joe Morris (Hexham) (Lab)
I want to speak about some of the challenges I experience when I am out in my constituency. Whether before the election or since, whether I am out in Throckley in the western reaches of Newcastle or in Otterburn, Bellingham or Wark in the Tyne valley, the inability to get a decent GP appointment is continuously raised with me as one of my constituents’ greatest frustrations, and they appreciate the sheer scale of the task that this Government have inherited.
One of the things I want to gently ask of the health team on the Front Bench is that when we look at building the community health service that we so desperately need, we consider that our rural communities in particular have suffered from health services being hollowed out for 14 years. If people are forced to go on public transport and it takes hours to get between small towns and villages, the barrier to a GP appointment becomes all the bigger. That was communicated to me throughout the election in visits to wards that I do not think Labour canvassers had knocked in before. Many residents of Hexham raised it as one of the primary reasons for switching to the Labour party, and it is why I am stood here as Hexham’s first ever Labour MP.
Five out of the seven dentists in my constituency are not accepting new patients. That crisis is particularly acute in the western part of Newcastle, in Callerton and Throckley—it has been raised with me multiple times on the doorstep—and the devastating impact of that crisis on families and on people’s mental health, as well as their physical health, has been illustrated by many of the contributions from across the House. The absolute disgrace of people getting visibly emotional when talking about their struggle to secure a dentist’s appointment in 21st-century Britain is one of the many badges of shame that the Conservative party should wear as it considers its future. I note the empty spaces on the Conservative Benches.
Ultimately, I want to pay tribute to the GPs and frontline staff who work tirelessly to deliver healthcare across my constituency and further afield, but also to emphasise that the challenge facing the NHS has never been greater, particularly in rural areas. The NHS has been brought to its knees by 14 years of mismanagement and complacency, and we now need to rise to the challenge. I am confident that this health team and this Government will do so.