Health and Social Care: Winter Update

Lisa Smart Excerpts

Wednesday 15th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

My hon. Friend brings expertise and experience to the House, and I am particularly grateful for his support and concern for the colleagues of the nurse who was so brutally attacked in Oldham, because I know that they will be acutely affected. In fact, the NHS workforce right across the country will have felt the shiver down the spine that I felt when I read about that horrific case.

My hon. Friend is right that I am fortunate to be able to call on every single one of my Labour predecessors, from Alan Milburn to Andy Burnham, to ask for their advice, experience and insight. As our great late friend John Prescott said, we need

“traditional values in a modern setting”.

I am bringing that modernising tradition to our approach to investment and reform, because the combination of both delivers results. That is how the last Labour Government delivered the shortest waiting times and the highest patient satisfaction in history.

[Lisa Smart (Hazel Grove) (LD)]

The Secretary of State will know that Stepping Hill hospital in Hazel Grove has a repairs backlog reported to be £130 million. That means that local teams at Stepping Hill are under even more pressure to tackle the winter crisis. His colleague the Minister for Secondary Care, the hon. Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth), wrote to me and my constituency neighbour, my hon. Friend the Member for Cheadle (Mr Morrison), in October to agree that she was deeply concerned about the condition of healthcare infrastructure at the hospital. Following the Budget, when should we expect clarity on funding per hospital so that my constituents and Stepping Hill patients get the hospital that they deserve?

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to the hon. Member for raising those concerns on the Floor of the House. Thanks to the decisions that the Chancellor took in the Budget, the Department has an additional £26 billion available for investment in our health and social care services, including estates. I cannot promise to fix the backlog that has built up over the past 14 years in a single budget year, but I can confirm that we will publish our mandate for NHS England and, following that, planning guidance and financial allocations, very shortly.