NHS Corridor Care

Debate between Matt Turmaine and Nusrat Ghani

Wednesday 8th July 2026 Commons Chamber

[Matt Turmaine (Watford) (Lab)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) for securing this important debate. The previous Government wreaked havoc on the NHS, with waiting times at an all-time high even before covid-19 hit a bruised and battered system. Under-investment and undelivered promises saw corridor care become commonplace, with its subsequent indignity and risk. It is a clear visual demonstration of a system on its knees.

This Labour Government are determined to act. The urgent and emergency care plan for 2025-26 provided more than £450 million of investment in urgent and emergency care. Additional millions of pounds of capital investment, reaching £1.9 billion over the next four years, will help to deliver it. Links between hospitals and social care are clear and critical, which is why the Government are working to implement a national care service and initiatives such as the first-ever fair pay agreement for adult social care staff.

Watford general hospital in my constituency is on the new hospitals programme, but it was previously delayed endlessly under the Conservative and Liberal Democrat coalition Government and subsequent Conservative Governments. However, under this Labour Government, it is seeing tangible action in preparation for the rebuild.

West Hertfordshire Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust has worked incredibly hard in my constituency to deal with corridor care, and I am delighted to say that corridor care has been eradicated altogether at Watford general hospital. It has not had a single incident of corridor care for six months. How has it managed that remarkable achievement?

First, the hospital has taken a whole-hospital approach to flow, making it everybody’s business and therefore everybody’s concern. The trust states:

“The simple rule is we don’t accept corridor care in our wards. We find other solutions.”

Secondly, the hospital has embraced data, embedding it into everything that it does to manage the flow of patients. It has real-time data tools such as electronic bed management, e-whiteboards and a digital command centre. Six key measures have been identified, which staff are using and which are easy to understand. Thirdly, the trust has engaged in partnership working—it could not tackle corridor care in A&E alone. There is a care co-ordination centre to reduce the number of ambulances coming into A&E for those who do not need emergency treatment; a multidisciplinary team to advise paramedics on where people should be treated; and close working with social care, treating people away from hospital, as is included in the NHS 10-year plan.

In conclusion, I place on record my thanks and admiration for the staff at the trust. Their hard work has paid off, and it demonstrates what can be achieved when working together as a team to deliver for their patients and population.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call James Naish to make the final Back-Bench contribution.

Hospitals

Debate between Matt Turmaine and Nusrat Ghani

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Matt Turmaine (Watford) (Lab)]

I draw attention to my entry in the Register of Members’ Financial Interests. I welcome this Opposition day debate on hospitals and the state of the NHS, which is on its knees after 14 years of mismanagement by the previous Government, but I find myself blinking in the dappled light of a new reality.

Reading the motion as drafted, one could be forgiven for thinking that an unchallenged Tory Government over the last 14 years alone were responsible for the chaos that we witness but, pinching myself to wake from the dream, I recall that the Liberal Democrats were part of that Government for five long years. They may want to forget about it, but we remember it. We remember the rose garden, where the blue Tories and the yellow Tories harmoniously, hand in hand, drew up their plans to devastate our health and social care public services through the austerity programme. We remember the bedroom tax, which was voted for multiple times by the Liberal Democrats. We remember the Lansley reforms and the Liberal Democrat spokespeople squirming in television interviews as they tried to justify the chaos into which they were about to plunge the NHS.

Under the previous Labour Government, we had the highest satisfaction levels and lowest waiting times, but what we inherited in July last year was an unmitigated disaster. The Tory-Lib Dem coalition tore up the last Labour Government’s plans for a new hospital in my constituency as part of the austerity programme. The staff at that hospital do a remarkable job, and I put on record my gratitude to them, even when I was wandering around dressed as a giant bunny rabbit on Sunday.

The Tories and the Liberal Democrats—nobody else—are responsible for the 14-year delay in getting a new hospital in Watford. If they had not done what they did, we would have had a new hospital by now, but we do not. Not a brick has been laid. They should hang their heads in shame at this total betrayal of Watford’s residents. The new hospital programme was not funded beyond March, and as the Prime Minister said in response to my question to him a few weeks ago, the hospitals existed only in the imagination of Boris Johnson.

I welcome this motion recognising the devastating state of the NHS, but let us be acutely aware that responsibility for that lies with the Liberal Democrats, who table this motion, and with the Conservatives in the previous Government. It is all very well to want to magic a hospital out of thin air, but it will be this Labour Government who finance and deliver it.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

Picturing the hon. Member in a rabbit outfit has woken us all up.

Income Tax (Charge)

Debate between Matt Turmaine and Nusrat Ghani

Tuesday 5th November 2024 Commons Chamber

[Matt Turmaine (Watford) (Lab)]

Thank you very much, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Prior to being elected to this place I worked in health and social care, so it has been interesting to hear some of the pronouncements from the mouths of Opposition Members, which in many instances are, frankly, farcical.

In my constituency, the legacy of 14 years of failed Conservative government is plain to see: people unable to get GP appointments; a lack of NHS dentists for residents to sign up with; poor mental health support for young people and adults; and, of course, the undelivered promise of a new hospital in Watford, cancelled under the coalition and not delivered by the Conservatives over subsequent years. The previous Government’s track record is one of decline. In 2010, average waiting times were 18 weeks and satisfaction levels in the NHS were at their absolute highest. What a contrast to 2024, with the NHS on its knees.

The Chancellor of the Exchequer announced in the Budget an additional £22.6 billion to support the NHS. That will help to deliver more appointments for my constituents in Watford, and it will bring progress towards once again having to wait no more than 18 weeks from referral to treatment. As has been said, we have done it before and we will do it again.

I also welcome the Chancellor’s £1.4 billion to help rebuild schools. She mentioned Watford in her Budget speech, noting that schools in my constituency will benefit from RAAC being dealt with. Mentioning RAAC also brings us to the new hospital programme. I know my right hon. Friend the Chief Secretary to the Treasury will be listening when I say loud and clear that Watford is desperate for a new hospital. That has been the case for many years. The trust’s plan is ready to go, go, go, but I recognise that the Chancellor has achieved the seemingly impossible by managing to start the new hospital programme and moving forward with addressing the hospitals affected by RAAC. We hope the rest will follow soon.

I campaigned in good faith in the general election for a new hospital and to honour the commitment made by the previous Government, but as we heard from the Chancellor in the summer, there was no money there. The Chancellor has worked wonders with this Budget. She has dealt with the financial black hole, she has got the country back on its feet and she has put it on the road to recovery. It is an excellent Budget for the people of Watford; it is an excellent Budget for the country. I wholeheartedly support it.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

We have been able to get in over 80 contributions, so thank you very much to everybody for abiding by the time limit. I now call the shadow Minister.