Health Bill

Luke Murphy Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 1st June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Luke Murphy (Basingstoke) (Lab)]

I welcome the NHS modernisation Bill as the next step in improving our NHS. When I was elected as the Member for Basingstoke, access to GPs, dentists and mental health services was not good enough. There were unacceptably long waits for elective care and at A&E, poor conditions of our hospital building and an overstretched primary care estate, so I welcome the progress made since my election, nationally and locally, through the investment, reform and hard work of NHS staff. We have seen 3,500 fewer people waiting for healthcare at Basingstoke hospital under a Labour Government, more GP appointments delivered across Hampshire than ever before, money to upgrade the practice at Chineham surgery from the Government’s upgrade fund and, after significant pressure from my office, the local council providing developer contributions of nearly £1.4 million for the same surgery. But we do need to go further; we have made progress, but there is so much more to do.

I particularly want to recognise in the Bill the importance of bringing about the single patient record. Before my dad died at the end of last year, he spent many days, weeks and months, over many years, in hospital, including in diabetic foot clinics and dialysis units, and in far too many intensive care units and wards. While the single patient record will bring about safer and more efficient care, the most important thing for me, as many other Members have mentioned, is the reduction of the burden, anxiety and stress placed on both the patient and their carer. When my dad was in hospital, I remember vividly that my mum carried around several sheets of A4 paper with his medical history and medications written on them. She did not just have to present that record to different parts of the NHS—she often had to present it to different units within the same hospital. Rather than worrying about my dad, she was worrying about whether she had brought that record. Clearly, that record should be held by the NHS. I know that many patients will recognise what an advance that will be both for their care and for hospital efficiency.

I recognise that the streamlining and abolition of NHS England will put more services on the frontline. As I said earlier, that is still badly needed in Basingstoke. It will help to improve GP access, deliver the health centre at Winklebury, ensure that there is a neighbourhood health centre across the constituency and further improve the A&E wait, for which there is plan in place.