Hospitals

Laura Kyrke-Smith Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Laura Kyrke-Smith (Aylesbury) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to speak in the debate. The previous Government made off-the-cuff commitments to new hospitals that were never going to be affordable or deliverable; I am really proud to be part of a Labour Government who commit only to what we can afford. We stick to our promises and deliver them. The rapid progress that we have made towards improving the NHS, reorienting it towards frontline delivery, is a fantastic example of that.

Over 3 million more appointments were delivered in the first nine months of this Government—that is well ahead of the target—and over 100,000 people have been treated on time. Those are great statistics, but when I knock on doors and meet residents, I hear about the difference that that has made to them and their families. People are back on their feet, back at work, and back being active parents and grandparents sooner than they could have imagined. This is politics that is delivering for people. It is not the politics of easy answers, but the politics of progress, and of change to people’s lives.

I will highlight one change that will be particularly important in my constituency of Aylesbury as we continue the work of transforming the NHS, including through the new hospital programme: the need to better integrate primary and secondary care. There is great potential for savings there, if we think about the secondary and primary care estates in the round. More importantly, that will help bring traditionally hospital based-care closer to the community; it will be better care that has better outcomes for people.

As I have said in this place before, we face an acute challenge in Aylesbury with our GP surgeries. We had new housing estates built in a poorly planned way under the previous Government, without the necessary GP services being provided. We also have particularly high levels of deprivation in Aylesbury and the county of Buckinghamshire—it is really marked by inequalities—which contributes to the pressures on our GP services.

The Government have already made significant progress in improving GP provision; 1,500 new GPs have been recruited, and successful negotiations with the British Medical Association have resulted in the biggest uplift in funding for GPs in years. I think that will start to make a real difference.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

Has the hon. Lady had any feedback, in conversations with her GPs, about what the increased employer national insurance contributions will do to their growth of provision?

[Laura Kyrke-Smith]

I am in regular contact with my GPs, and I know that they are really pleased, actually, with the uplift in funding that they have received through the contract, and with what they will be able to deliver with that.

As we think about the future of hospital provision, we must think about our healthcare in the round—what each community needs more broadly, and how we join up hospital services with those provided by our GPs, and with other community services. I am really excited by the work already under way in Buckinghamshire to establish integrated neighbourhood teams and I am pleased at this Government’s commitment to neighbourhood health centres.

In Buckinghamshire, and particularly in Aylesbury, all our key health organisations are coming together—including the acute and community NHS trusts, primary care, the local authority, public health, the mental health trust and voluntary sector organisations—to agree a collective plan for the next 10 years, which I think could be transformative. They are pooling their collective resources and teams across Stoke Mandeville hospital and three primary care networks, and looking not only at creating a centre in Aylesbury for shared delivery of services, but at providing better care out in the communities.

As we build our hospitals of the future across the country, it is essential that we plan in that way—not just for in-hospital care, but for a joined-up approach across all our services, bringing that care closer to our communities. Ultimately, that is what people want and what people need: a future healthcare system in which as many people as possible can access care close to home and manage their health in their own homes and their own communities as best as possible.