Francis Report

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 5th March 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mike Kane (Wythenshawe and Sale East) (Lab)]

Aneurin Bevan’s father died in his arms from coal dust disease, and that drove his passion to establish the NHS when he came into government in 1948. We could put a major fault line down the middle of the Chamber between the two sides in this debate, but we could take away one win if we agreed on one thing underlying the Francis report—the development of a common patient-centred culture.

The Prime Minister mentioned Aneurin Bevan in Prime Minister’s questions today, trying to assume his mantle as the guardian of the national health service, but I assure the House that the right hon. Member for Witney (Mr Cameron) is no Nye Bevan.

Bevan’s “In Place of Fear” clearly set out the principle on which the NHS was founded. It is sometimes worth going back to such principles, as well as looking at its vision for the future. The principle was that

“no society can legitimately call itself civilised if a sick person is denied medical aid because of lack of means.”

People died in Mid Staffordshire because of lack of means. I compliment the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) on an absolutely excellent speech, and on the care and compassion he has shown his constituents during the past few years.

I agree with the Secretary of State that much of the debate is about leadership. I welcome the fact that we will develop more leaders, because leadership in hospitals is a key way forward. I worked in education for many years and I know that, like schools, hospitals reflect the nature and ethos of their leaders. The more leaders we can create, the better the health service we can create.

However, I also agree with my right hon. Friend the shadow Health Secretary. Bevan’s principle in “In Place of Fear” was that no person would be denied medical aid by lack of means in a civilised society, but because of the top-down reorganisation that we currently face, we are in fear. It is no coincidence that several Greater Manchester MPs are in the Chamber for today’s debate, because we are worried about the strategic leadership of Healthier Together, the organisation overseeing the changes in health care across Greater Manchester. Such top-down reorganisation is creating fear. It has sucked £3 billion out of NHS front-line services and in my opinion—I am not talking about winter pressures—it is putting patient care at risk, which is ultimately what the Francis report is all about.

That is no more apparent than in my constituency of Wythenshawe and Sale East. We knocked on 17,000 doors during the short space of a few weeks last month, and the single biggest issue raised was health care, particularly health care at Wythenshawe hospital. First, I want to praise the staff at the hospital, from top to bottom, and the service that they provide. I was born there and I had a minor medical procedure on my toe there recently. The staff were excellent, from top to bottom.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley and Eccles South (Barbara Keeley) said, the reorganisation downgraded the accident and emergency facility at Trafford. That decision might have been right or wrong, but because of the rushed nature of the reorganisation and the fact that it was top-down, not bottom-up, it led to a lack of capacity at the neighbouring hospital at Wythenshawe. My right hon. Friend the Member for Leigh opened the Wythenshawe walk-in centre a year or two ago. That has been shut and the services have been transferred to Wythenshawe hospital.

What is happening to Trafford general hospital really grates on me, even though it is not in my constituency, because it was the first NHS hospital. It was opened by Bevan on 5 July 1948. He handed over the keys to the hospital.

The reorganisation has led to Wythenshawe hospital having to take the strain. It is failing the Government’s guideline of treating 90% of A and E patients within four hours. The chief executive of the University Hospital of South Manchester NHS Foundation Trust, which runs the hospital, said that the increased day-to-day admissions meant that 22 extra beds were required. That is a whole ward. To add to the organisational chaos that the top-down reorganisation has created, the hospital is now being investigated by Monitor, the Government regulator. It is almost a self-fulfilling prophesy.

To provide the extra accident and emergency space that is needed, surgical wards are being used. That has led to the cancellation of dozens of operations. At the last count, about 80 operations had been cancelled. The situation has led to nearly 1,000 ambulances having to queue down Southmoor road, which is just outside Wythenshawe hospital, this winter.

In the short week and a half that I have attended this Chamber, I have seen that debates can turn into statistical conventions. However, Members on both sides of the Chamber know—this was made clear by the stories from Mid Staffs—that there are real people in those ambulances and that it is 80 real people who have had their operations cancelled at Wythenshawe. It is not only those people who are affected; their families are affected too. Can we legitimately call ourselves civilised, to use Bevan’s words, when sick people are being denied medical aid today? I do not think that we can.

I am grateful for the Secretary of State for agreeing to meet me to discuss Wythenshawe hospital and the A and E emergency. My litmus test will be Bevan’s test. I hope that that will form the basis of my conversation with the Secretary of State. I will press him on that when I meet him.