New Hospital Programme and Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust

Debate between Mark Hendrick and Ruth Cadbury

Tuesday 13th June 2023 Westminster Hall

[Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairship, Sir Mark. I draw your attention to my revised entry in the Members’ Registry of Financial Interests: my spouse is chair of audit at the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust. I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Hammersmith (Andy Slaughter) for securing this important debate on the hammer blow that has been inflicted on west London—just one part of the funding and investment crisis being inflicted on the NHS by the Government.

Many of my constituents rely on services from the Imperial College Healthcare NHS Trust, and particularly the St Mary’s, Hammersmith and Charing Cross Hospitals. For constituents in the eastern third of my constituency, Charing Cross Hospital is their local general hospital, whereas for those across my constituency, some or all treatments could be at Charing Cross, Hammersmith or St Mary’s.

My hon. Friend powerfully laid out the case against the Government and the complete neglect they have shown over the past 10 years to those across west London who need NHS care and those who work in the NHS. The sad thing is that I am not even surprised, because this is what we have come to expect from a Conservative Government—things such as the promises made by the now former Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. He said there would be 40 new hospitals—that is a promise he drove into the ditch.

I expect that the Minister will make a valiant effort to shake the Etch A Sketch and pretend that the last four years did not actually happen, but patients and staff cannot pretend. Every delayed or inadequate repair or rebuild of any NHS buildings impacts on staff and patients. Leaking roofs, failing electrics, flooding sewage systems and structural faults put whole wards out of action. Operations have been cancelled, diagnostic units and pharmacies have suddenly closed, and much more. This all leads to delayed diagnostics, delayed treatment and delayed discharge.

The NHS backlog currently stands at over 7.3 million, and over 48,000 people in my constituency and the borough of Hounslow were waiting for treatment last year, including 50 who had been waiting over a year for an operation. Behind every single one of those cold numbers is a person whose life is put on hold or, worse, put at risk because of the delays to well-overdue investment. Examples of delay include people who are forced to go private, stroke victims waiting months for a physio, and a young man waiting over a year for an assessment for a broken hip. Behind every one of those stories is not just frustration, but a deeper anger—a righteous anger about just how bad the state of things is. How many of the delays that people are experiencing are made worse because of the failure to invest in the core infrastructure of NHS buildings? We should be clear that it is not the fault of NHS staff and boards. The Imperial trust has needed work to happen for years, and has been preparing and getting plans ready in the expectation that the Government’s promised support will arrive.

I will touch on another aspect that is not necessarily specific to the Imperial trust, but it has been raised with me recently and it is an example of the impact of cutting back on NHS capital investment. There has been a failure to invest in technology, equipment and buildings in testing labs. Without that investment, the NHS is becoming increasingly dependent on the private sector. Businesses are using their leverage position to demand unnecessarily high unit costs per diagnostic test from the already overstretched NHS revenue budgets. Of course, as my hon. Friend the Member for Westminster North (Ms Buck) has described, the annual additional maintenance cost is coming out of revenue budgets because of the lack of capital expenditure.

The failure to invest has left NHS staff, patients and their families down. I know from recently visiting West Middlesex University Hospital is Isleworth in my constituency how hard NHS staff are working, and the groundbreaking work they are doing, but staff say they get little to no support from Government. West Middlesex is not in the same position as the three hospitals mentioned in this debate; it had a complete rebuild on the core part of the hospital under the last Labour Government.

NHS staff and patients are fed up, and they feel ignored. Surely the failure to invest in our NHS estate and provide what was promised will be yet another kick in the teeth for them. The broken promises will have a huge impact on not just my constituents but all Londoners. As has been said, St Mary’s Hospital provides key clinical services and is one of London’s major trauma centres—I think there are only four across London.

[Sir Mark Hendrick (in the Chair)]

Order. Ruth, could you wind up?

[Ruth Cadbury]

In conclusion, my constituents, who already face record waiting lists, will face a longer wait and greater difficulty because of the Government’s decision to pause investment. The Government over-promise and under-deliver. The whole farce shows why, after 13 years in power, it is time for a change.