Five Year Forward View

Mike Kane Excerpts

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is a very important issue and we need more GPs. We have about 1,000 more full-time equivalent GPs during this Parliament but we face the demographic issue that my hon. Friend identifies. That is why we are looking at how we can make it easier for GPs who have stopped practising, perhaps to have a family, to come back into the profession, and how we can make it easier for GPs to do part-time work. We are looking at all those issues because we are committed to reducing the burn-out that many GPs experience by improving and increasing the number of GPs actively practising.

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

General practitioner managers throughout the land will be tearing their hair out at the complacency of the right hon. Gentleman’s statement today. According to the patient survey, 39% of people could not see their preferred GP. That is an increase of 1.2 million. My general practice managers in Sale are saying that the situation is at crisis point. Why does the Secretary of State’s view differ from theirs?

[Mr Hunt]

As I have just told the House, I welcome a report that says we need to invest more in general practice. There has been historical under-investment over decades, which is why more and more resources have been sucked into the hospital sector. We are calling time on that and saying that we have to invest more in primary care, community care and out-of-hospital care. It is a big change for the NHS, and I think that the hon. Gentleman’s practice managers will be thrilled to hear it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Kane Excerpts

Tuesday 21st October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

That is complete nonsense. The previous Government occasionally deployed private ambulances, which trusts use occasionally when they need to do so. This is another part of Labour’s myth of creeping privatisation, which is not true—it is absolute nonsense. It is important, however, in the interests of patient safety and as a short-term measure, that if that is what it takes, trusts must do it, as happened under the previous Government, because patient safety comes first.

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

9. What estimate he has made of the number of mental health nurses working in the NHS in each of the last three years.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

Mental health nurses are not identified in the NHS work force statistics. They work predominantly in psychiatric services, but also across a range of settings and the independent sector. The total number of full-time equivalent nurses working in psychiatric services was 39,472 in July 2012, 38,772 in July 2013, and 38,055 in July 2014. Since June, NHS organisations, including mental health trusts, have been required to report ward-level nursing numbers against safe staffing levels on NHS Choices.

[Mike Kane]

I am sure the Minister will join me in praising the hard work and dedication of all the staff at Laureate House mental health facility in Wythenshawe hospital in my constituency. The Government talk the talk, but do not walk the walk in terms of parity. Why has there been a decline in the number of mental health doctors over the past two years?

[Norman Lamb]

I also praise the work of the staff at the hon. Gentleman’s local trust. There has actually been an increase of more than 2,800 practitioners in psychological therapy since 2010 as part of the IAPT programme—increasing access to psychological therapies —which I am sure the hon. Gentleman will be very pleased to hear. For the first time, this Government are introducing access and waiting time standards in mental health, and that gives us the basis to achieve genuine equality for mental health for the first time ever.

NHS Services (Access)

Mike Kane Excerpts

Wednesday 15th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Kevan Jones (North Durham) (Lab)]

I wish to discuss the crisis in the North East ambulance service. To do this, I will give some of the examples I have come across and others that have been backed up by the police and other agencies. But first I must pay tribute to the hard work of the staff of the ambulance service. It is not their fault they are under pressure; they are dedicated individuals who wish to do their best for my constituents and others in the north-east.

I wish to give two of many examples—other north-east parliamentary colleagues have complaints as well. The first comes from Carole Hampson, who lives in Quaking Houses, in my constituency. On 20 June, her son Christopher rang 111, the non-emergency number, because his 10-month-old son had drunk bleach. He was told, “No problem. We’ll get an ambulance to you straightaway. Don’t do anything.” An hour later, an ambulance had still not turned up. His mother then rang back and said, “Forget it. I’m taking him in a car.” The pressure and worry for both him and his grandmother must have been tremendous. Luckily, the youngster was fine. On 4 July, she again rang the ambulance service because her son was critically ill with a diabetes-related condition. She rang 999 and the operator said, “Is he still conscious?” She said, “Yes”. The operator said, “Okay, we’ll get there as soon as possible.” An hour and 20 minutes later, an ambulance turned up.

It is not just Carole Hampson’s family who have been affected. On 11 July, she was driving through Stanley in my constituency when she saw an old gentleman fall into the road and break his head on the pavement. The police arrived and she and other bystanders came by. She rang 999 for an ambulance. While they were waiting—for 30-odd minutes—blue light ambulances were going past. The police rang the ambulance service, but no response was forthcoming. In the end, the police took the old gentleman home, where an ambulance later attended. I have another constituent, who I will not name because I have not asked her permission, whose husband had an angina attack. She rang her GP, who recommended she ring 999. The operator said, “We’ll get a paramedic to you”, which she did, but three hours later the ambulance arrived to take him to hospital.

It is not just individual constituents saying there is a crisis in the North East ambulance service; there is evidence from the police. Over a six-month period this year, there were 675 incidents in which the police had to step in following the failure of ambulances to attend. I shall give just a few examples. On 2 September, the police attended a road traffic accident and asked for an ambulance to attend. Thirty minutes later, an ambulance arrived.

On 5 September, the police requested an ambulance because an individual had been assaulted and had waited 75 minutes for an ambulance to attend. On 7 September, the police transported to hospital a male patient with head injuries because the North East ambulance controller said that no ambulance was available and that there were 39 outstanding instances. On 19 September, the police requested an ambulance to attend a female patient with severe facial injuries; an hour and a half later an ambulance had not attended, so the family had to take care of the individual themselves. On 20 September, the ambulance controller told the local police that the ambulance service was in a critical situation. This needs sorting out.

There are two problems facing the NHS North East ambulance service. One is A and E. Ambulances are backing up at A and E. The other day, an ambulance driver told me that he had been directed from Chester-le-Street to Carlisle on the other side of the country. Then there is the 111 service brought in by this Government, which is failing. The system is not being managed by professionals with any background. It is a tick-box system that is leading to instances in which ambulances that are not needed have been sent out, clogging up the system. This service is in crisis, and what is the North East ambulance service that is responsible for it going to do? It is carrying out a review. It has appointed Deloitte to carry out a review into its operation, but my constituents do not want management consultants to sort it out.

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

I thank my hon. Friend for giving way and compliment him on his excellent contribution. Does he agree that this situation is being exacerbated where we are privatising ambulance services? That is what happened in Greater Manchester where in the last year alone, half the journeys failed to get patients to their appointments on time.

[Mr Jones]

That is right. This is what is picking up the slack.

My constituents do not want management consultants to sort the problems out; they want health care professionals to do so. If we in the north-east do not do something about this soon, people are going to die. Because of what is happening, people do not accept this system. The delays are causing a huge amount of angst to individuals and are putting huge pressure on other services such as the police and fire and rescue. In desperate situations, where people in road traffic and other accidents need urgent medical care, they are unable to get it. It is a failure in 2014 that my constituents and those of other north-east Members cannot get basic medical care.

I ask the Minister—I see he is busy talking at the moment and I would like him to pay attention—urgently to intervene in the North East ambulance service because it faces a critical situation. Management consultants are not the answer, and I have no faith in the management to sort this out, as has been said by other emergency services, local authorities and their own staff. Unless there is some central direction and intervention to put this right, people’s lives in the north-east of England will be lost.

Healthier Together Programme (Greater Manchester)

Mike Kane Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd July 2014 Westminster Hall

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

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mrs Riordan. It is also a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall), who speaks with passion about his constituents, and the authoritative contributions from my hon. Friends the Members for Stretford and Urmston (Kate Green) and for Blackley and Broughton (Graham Stringer), whom I congratulate on securing a timely debate.

We have world-class health services in Greater Manchester. My constituency is home to University Hospital of South Manchester, which delivers services amounting to £450 million, employs 6,500 people and has 530 volunteers, who give up their free time to help patients and visitors. The hospital has several fields of specialist expertise, including cardiology and cardiothoracic surgery, heart and lung transplantation, respiratory conditions, burns and plastics, cancer and breast care services. Indeed, the trust is home to Europe’s first purpose-built breast cancer prevention centre, which I visited just a few weeks ago to see the unveiling of the new plaque dedicated to my predecessor, Paul Goggins, who worked so hard for the services at Wythenshawe. The hospital not only serves the people of south Manchester, but helps patients from across the north-west and beyond.

[David Rutley]

The hon. Gentleman speaks with passion and great knowledge about his local hospital. I was fortunate enough to be able to witness how good the services are at Wythenshawe, because I was whisked away when I spent a day with the North West ambulance service. I went in to see heart surgery taking place there, and it is first class. We must recognise that the care pathways that link Wythenshawe—or Stepping Hill, for that matter—to outlying hospitals outside the Greater Manchester area, such as Macclesfield, are vital. Does he agree with my hon. Friend the Member for High Peak (Andrew Bingham) that it is critical that the ripple-out effects of the consultation are taken into account?

[Mike Kane]

I cannot agree more. Wythenshawe hospital lies at the south of the conurbation and at the south of the area of the Healthier Together consultation. Being at the south of the conurbation and south of the River Mersey, it has traditionally looked to provide services to people in Cheshire as a whole, including the hon. Gentleman’s constituency.

[David Rutley]

I am sorry to take the hon. Gentleman’s time again, but I thank him for giving way. It is odd that there are at least two options—options 4.1 and 4.2—where there would be no hospital in the south, with neither Wythenshawe nor Stepping Hill. Does he agree that that would be a strange outcome that could endanger patient health?

[Mike Kane]

I agree. It would be odd not only for my constituency, but for constituencies to the south in the Cheshire belt and the Cheshire plain that those hospitals serve.

Wythenshawe hospital is very much looking to the future and its long-term sustainability. It is developing the Manchester MediPark in partnership with Manchester city council and private sector developers. MediPark will exploit the huge strengths of Greater Manchester and the north-west in health and life science services. Research and development forms a key part of the new Manchester airport city enterprise zone, which I had the opportunity of updating Members on only last week during my Adjournment debate on regional airports.

UHSM is recognised as a centre of excellence for research and development, and is a founding member of Manchester Academic Health Science Centre. The partners of the science centre share the common goal of providing patients and clinicians with rapid access to the latest discoveries and improving the quality and effectiveness of patient care. It is clear that the hospital is going from strength to strength, but I fear that the planned Greater Manchester Healthier Together proposals, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Blackley and Broughton referred, could fundamentally destabilise the trust and lead to a loss of its major emergency service, many of its specialised services, its trauma service and even its teaching status.

The additional reorganisation is set against the backdrop of the Government’s £3 billion reorganisation of the NHS, which has siphoned off money from the front line to pay for back-office restructuring. In the first three years of this Government, attendances at A and E have increased by 633,000, yet Trafford general, to which my hon. Friend the Member for Stretford and Urmston referred and which serves many of my constituents, has seen a downgrading of its A and E department. It has got harder to get a GP appointment since the Government scrapped the previous Government’s guarantee of an appointment within 48 hours, and cut funding for extended opening hours. That is a key cause of Wythenshawe’s A and E problems.

[Julie Hilling]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the major vision that seems to be emerging is simply one of pitching hospital against hospital—fighting about whether to have a hospital in Wigan or Bolton, or four or five specialist hospitals, when, as has been said, we all want a good local service? Should not the concentration be first and foremost on getting primary care services correctly in place? That should be sorted out, and afterwards we can look at what hospital care we need.

[Mike Kane]

I agree; the most important thing is to get primary care in place first. Starting a consultation nine months from a general election that will pit MP against MP is not a good idea.

A quarter of walk-in centres, including Wythenshawe, have closed, and NHS Direct has been dismantled. On top of all that, the new Healthier Together proposals mean there is potential for a downgrade at Wythenshawe hospital. That would, as has been pointed out, be a broken promise for people in Wythenshawe and south-west Manchester, who following the downgrading of the A and E at Trafford general were assured that University Hospital of South Manchester would not be affected.

The aim of Healthier Together, to give patients across the region the same excellent standard of service wherever they live, is the right one. The challenge is huge. Manchester has the highest premature death rate of any local authority in the country. There can be no doubt that health care services in Greater Manchester need to change. Almost £2 billion has been taken out of the budget for adult social care. We need to do things differently to meet the challenges of the time and better integrating local authority services with the NHS will be a key part of that change. However, the current process is flawed and is moving too fast. The proposals fail to recognise that Wythenshawe is already a major specialist site that provides many vital services to the people of Greater Manchester.

The public are not being provided with enough detail to enable them fully to understand the implications of the proposed changes. The consultation meetings have been criticised—as they have today—for being jargon-ridden and held at inaccessible times. No financial models have been provided in the information for the public and UHSM believes that the current proposals could destabilise the finances of the trust.

Wythenshawe is a level 1 major trauma centre, and is currently the only site capable of developing a single level 1 trauma site for adults for the whole of Greater Manchester. As my hon. Friend the Member for Blackley and Broughton pointed out, it covers Manchester airport, and if an accident were to happen such a nearby centre would be vital. The current proposals could leave the southern sector of Greater Manchester and north Cheshire with no specialist major emergency hospital. The proposal does not reflect the view of providers and local commissioners in the southern sector that Wythenshawe should remain and be developed further as the sole specialist site in the southern sector.

The failure of the proposals to acknowledge Wythenshawe as one of the fixed sites threatens the future clinical, operational and financial sustainability of the trust. For changes at such a level to have the desired impact on services across Greater Manchester, all the partners must be firmly on board. I urge Healthier Together to look again and ensure that the baby is not being thrown out with the bath water, because of a rushed consultation and flawed proposals.

NHS Investigations (Jimmy Savile)

Mike Kane Excerpts

Thursday 26th June 2014 Commons Chamber

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

I thank the Secretary of State for advance sight of the report from Wythenshawe hospital this morning. For me, the shocking revelation that I noted was that it was an open secret among patients, as early as 1962, that this man was doing what he was doing—and I quote:

“a dirty old man up to no good”.

If there is one good thing that can come from this for the nation, it is that we implore all institutions, both governmental and in civil society, to keep their child protection, safeguarding and recruitment selection procedures up to date and under review.

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right and touches on a matter that we have not touched on so far this morning. Recruitment is a very important area that we must get right in this process, and I wholeheartedly agree with what he said.

Health

Mike Kane Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

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

I am delighted to be called tonight. As a by-election winner just 16 weeks ago, I felt the pressure of being 650th in the order of seniority, but, following the Newark by-election, I am now 649th.

This was my first Gracious Speech, and I am prompted to echo the words of my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford South (Mike Gapes). I was born and raised in Manchester, 95 of whose 96 councillors are now Labour, while the 96th is Independent Labour. That reflects people’s serious concerns about health, the establishment of Healthier Together in Greater Manchester, and what has happened to Wythenshawe hospital’s accident and emergency services over the past few years.

I pay tribute to the Leader of the Opposition and the Prime Minister for their kind words about Paul Goggins. He was an extraordinarily dedicated public servant, and the Prime Minister was very gracious in dedicating the legislation on child neglect to his memory. My constituents and I are grateful for that, and I know that Paul’s family will be as well.

It often occurs to me that the NHS will really be 90 years old next year. Aneurin Bevan’s father died in his arms, of pneumoconiosis, without the benefit of any health care provision. Bevan felt that the pain of one was the pain of millions, and he decided on that day that he would build the extraordinarily fantastic service that became the NHS, which he created years later in 1948.

I thought about why the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition partners did not want health to feature in this year’s Queen’s Speech in terms of electoral strategy, which was probably wrong. The key to any electoral strategy is not about two competing answers to the question, but about who gets to frame the question in the first place. The coalition partners want to ignore the health service because they know from Aneurin Bevan’s legacy, from the fact that we are leading in the polls, and from the way in which my right hon. Friend Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) pounds the Government on these issues day in, day out in every part of the country that it is ground that Lynton Crosby wants them to avoid.

The top-down reorganisation cost £3 billion, and what has it done for my constituency? The Government downgraded the A and E centre at Trafford general hospital, the first NHS hospital to be opened by Bevan in 1948. They shut the Wythenshawe walk-in centre, and there was then a crisis of pressure in Wythenshawe hospital’s A and E department. Fourteen weeks ago, I asked the Secretary of State to meet me to talk about that. I later sent him a personal note, but he has still not contacted me about such a meeting. His own MPs want to be involved in that meeting. MPs on all sides of the political divide want to sort that out. I am demanding that the Government meet local MPs to discuss the continuing pressures at the hospital. Those pressures are expounded day in, day out by surgery work.

Last year, my constituent Emma Latham lost her husband Steven, aged 43. They had to wait 40 minutes for an ambulance. In February this year, she experienced breathing difficulties. The call was categorised as a red 2, but she still had to wait 40 minutes for the ambulance service to arrive. Tony Gunning, another constituent of mine, who has liver and heart failure, waited over an hour for his ambulance and for dialysis. He is often bundled into a taxi home by Arriva, the private sector provider, when it can organise one for him. John Ireland, another constituent of mine, has a heart condition. He has been told it will be two weeks before he can see his local GP.

That is not good enough. The Government might not want this to be the agenda in the next 12 months but Labour Members will highlight every case, every hospital, every downgrade and every closure, and we will make the case clear to the British public next May. The NHS will last as long as there are folk to fight for it. We on the Labour Benches will fight for it.

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.

Oral Answers to Questions

Mike Kane Excerpts

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

I thank my hon. Friend, and I know that many hon. Members have raised this issue because pancreatic cancer outcomes remain extremely difficult. We want to see the best outcomes for all cancer patients. There has been a big investment by the Government in diagnosis and screening—£450 million—and last year we were involved in piloting a tool to support GPs in diagnosing cancer earlier, including pancreatic cancer, in over 500 GP practices. That pilot is currently being evaluated.

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

The Manchester Evening News recently highlighted the enormous pressures faced by Wythenshawe accident and emergency after the downgrading of Trafford accident and emergency. Will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss this and to tell me when Wythenshawe will receive the extra funds that it has been promised?

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

I welcome the hon. Gentleman to the House and congratulate him on representing in his constituency a fantastic hospital; I have been to Wythenshawe hospital and it is superb. Some big changes are happening in the Greater Manchester area that will lead to that part of the country having some of the best NHS care in the country. Obviously there is a difficult transition in A and E services between Trafford and Wythenshawe, and I am happy to meet him to discuss it further.