Access to Primary Healthcare

Monica Harding Excerpts

Wednesday 16th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

I am proud to speak today about our NHS, which looks after my constituents in Esher and Walton—young, old and in the middle—every day. But after years of neglect and failure by the previous Government, my constituents too often struggle to access primary healthcare, which we believe should be a right. The NHS was denied necessary reforms and resources, and it has not been prepared for an ageing population with increasing rates of chronic and complex conditions. The extra strain is demonstrated in the ratio of patients per GP and in the daily lives of my constituents, who suffer long waits or are unable to get appointments. I recently received a letter describing how a GP appointment for a constituent’s elderly mother was cancelled at short notice and had not been rescheduled after a month, despite several emails. Problems like this are far from being one-offs.

In my constituency, residents often struggle to get same-day GP appointments, and too many wait more than a week. Our personal citizen contract with the NHS is implicit in being British, but that contract is fraying. Being able to access a GP in a timely manner is an essential expectation that my constituents still have, which is why enshrining the Liberal Democrat guarantee of access to an appointment within seven days as a right in the NHS’s constitution is so important. It reflects the duty of the Government to ensure that one’s local GP is always accessible.

The excessive wait times are intimately connected with the Conservative failure to recruit and retain GPs. In the previous Government’s 2019 manifesto, they committed to recruit more than 6,000 GPs; instead, there are fewer GPs than there were five years ago. Since then, however, the population has continued to rise and age, and conditions have become more complex. The broken Conservative promise—yet another failure—means that in the last eight years, the number of patients per fully qualified GP in the Surrey heartlands has risen to 2,163, even though the UK has one of the lowest ratios of doctors to people, recently ranking 22nd out of 33 OECD countries. Even when people can get an appointment, it is often not with a GP, often unknowingly.

As my hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron) pointed out, the policies pursued by the previous Government, including the restrictions on the recruitment of GPs under the additional roles recruitment scheme, have resulted in incidents of GPs in Esher and Walton being offered voluntary redundancy, even as residents struggle to get an appointment. Our most vulnerable patients have a particular need for security and stability, and this belief under- pins the Lib Dem conviction that everyone over the age of 70 or with a long-term physical or mental health condition—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Judith Cummins)]

Order. I call the Liberal Democrat spokesperson.

NHS Performance: Darzi Investigation

Monica Harding Excerpts

Monday 7th October 2024 Commons Chamber

[Monica Harding (Esher and Walton) (LD)]

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. It is a true privilege to be standing here among the green Benches, not only as the Member for Esher and Walton but as the first Liberal MP for my constituency for over 100 years, and its first female MP.

The biggest issue on the doorstep in my constituency is undoubtedly the state of the NHS, so I am pleased to make my maiden speech in this debate. First, however, it would be remiss of me not to point out that Esher and Walton are only two of the towns I represent. My constituency also includes the Dittons, the Moleseys, Claygate, Hersham, Hinchley Wood and Oatlands. I am proud to have called it my home for almost 20 years and it is where I raised my four children.

My constituency is also the playground of the kings and queens of England. Esher and Walton spans the former hunting estate of Henry VIII, which stretched from Thames Ditton to Oatlands Palace, where his daughters Mary and Elizabeth sometimes resided and Charles I was imprisoned. As a result of Henry’s forest, our constituency is almost 60% green-belt land. In the Government’s planning reforms to provide the homes we desperately need, these areas must also be protected.

It was the ease of travel to London via the River Thames, when boats were faster than horses, which led the monarchs to Esher and Walton. Sometimes, our trains into London feel as slow as being on horseback. I look forward to pushing for improvements to our railways, but we are a river community. The Thames provides our border with London, and the chalk stream, the Mole, runs through our constituency and is now one of the most polluted rivers in England. My constituents are so exercised by the sewage pouring into our rivers that they have been explicit about sending me to this place to help sort it out.

Our rowing clubs share their disquiet, not least because they do not want their Olympians getting sick. Molesey boat club sent four members to Paris this year, as did Surbiton hockey club—it is actually in Long Ditton—which sent 11 and has over 1,000 youth players. Every weekend in Esher and Walton, grassroots youth football clubs gear up to welcome over 5,000 players registered. The great Walton and Hersham FC boasts the youngest owners in world football, and so interlinked is football in our community that the five Claygate Royals youth teams are named after Claygate’s five pubs. We are a hub of children playing sport, which matters for their health and wellbeing, and that brings me back to the debate.

Madam Deputy Speaker, I want to tell you a story from my constituency. During the general election campaign, I met on the doorstep a couple unloading their car. I apologised for disturbing them as they were unpacking their shopping. “Not shopping,” they replied, “We are unpacking our son’s belongings. He died.” They went on to tell me that this young 19-year-old man had taken his life while at university. “He met you,” they told me. “He said he would vote for you because you were speaking out on mental health and special educational needs support for young people.”

His mother told me that she counted herself lucky that she had managed to support her son for the years at school because she could afford interventions and therapy. She worried about those children stuck on NHS waiting lists unable to access the support that he had had. In Surrey, there are almost 7,000 children on mental health waiting lists, with average waits of almost eight months. I meet parents on the doorstep whose special needs children are at home, rather than at school, for months and sometimes years, sliding into depression because they cannot access adequate provision.

I promised that young man’s mother that if I was elected I would continue to shine a light on this issue, and I can think of no better way to do so than in this debate. Our children and young people are in trouble, and we must fix it. As a start, we need to put mental health care on an equitable footing with care for physical health. In 2024, that is long overdue; let this new Parliament be the start of it.

I am, of course, very aware that I stand here on the anniversary of the 7 October attacks. I want to add my voice in remembering all those who have lost their lives or are still held hostage, and those across the region who are displaced and suffering or have been killed. As the new Liberal Democrat spokesperson on international development, I urge the Government to use all their levers to get humanitarian aid into the region as winter approaches. I will be pushing this House to renew our leadership in international development by restoring the 0.7% commitment of gross national income to UK aid.

My constituents are outward-looking. They are used to having a Foreign Secretary as an MP in my predecessor Dominic Raab, and I pay tribute to his work—particularly his introduction of the British National (Overseas) scheme, which my party had long called for and which has given my constituency a wonderful new British Hong Kong community. Following 15 years working overseas, I am committed to contributing to the resetting of our standing in the world, recognising our international obligations and participating fully in our international institutions, which will include restoring a closer relationship with our closest neighbour, Europe.

I bring to this House the brilliance of the people of Esher and Walton, and their struggle. As someone once said, politics done well changes lives. It saves lives too, and, in this still new Parliament, I intend, with hon. Members and Friends, to set to work.