Access to Primary Healthcare
Natasha Irons Excerpts(1 month ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)
Of all our public services, our NHS is the one that unites us the most. It is in the room that our children our born in. It is there when our parents get old and when we receive the worst possible news. It is there for us no matter who we are, what we do or what we earn. Our NHS belongs to us all. The previous Government inherited an NHS that was working, with the highest satisfaction levels and lowest waiting times in its history. The state of the NHS today, where 2.8 million people struggle to contact a GP every month, demonstrates their utter contempt not just for this precious institution, but for the people it serves.
There can be no greater example of the previous Government’s failure than the declining health of our young people. Last year, the number of under 18-year-olds on waiting lists for paediatric care in England soared to a record high of over 400,000. As Lord Darzi’s report shows, our children are some of the sickest in Europe, with the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and poor oral and mental health. Under the previous Government’s watch, 40% of children lost regular access to a dentist, the number of children waiting more than 52 weeks for community health services hit 94% in just two years, and one in 5 children is estimated to have a mental health problem but is unable to access the right treatment.
The previous Government failed our children from head to toe. That is reflected in the experience of young people in my constituency, where they and their families wait months and sometimes even years for support. Parents are desperate for help, young people are desperate for healthcare and everyone is desperate for hope.
Labour has fixed our NHS before and under this Government we will fix it again. Following Lord Darzi’s report, the Prime Minister has recognised the need to change our health service, and has set out this Government’s intention for a 10-year plan to change our NHS. Our Health Secretary has already committed to putting in the extra resources we desperately need for primary care, including £82 million of investment to recruit 1,000 newly qualified GPS, and to finally reform the broken dental contract to get more dentists into the communities that need them.
Unlike the previous Government, we will fight for our NHS. We will not allow primary care services to continue to be overwhelmed. We will not leave patients rotting on waiting lists, and we will not let our children be the sickest in Europe. We will fix our NHS. We have fixed it before, and we will fix it again.
NHS: Independent Investigation
Natasha Irons Excerpts(2 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Wes Streeting
I like the hon. Gentleman very much, but what audacity to criticise this Government for cleaning up the Conservatives’ mess. He fails to acknowledge the cost to the Exchequer and to patients in delayed and cancelled operations, appointments and procedures. More than £1 billion has been lost and more than 1 million appointments cancelled because of the Conservatives’ gross incompetence and failure to understand the difference—they are penny-wise and pound-foolish. That is why they have been sent into opposition and Labour has been trusted to clean up their mess.
Natasha Irons (Croydon East) (Lab)
There can be no greater example of the previous Government’s failure than the shocking outcomes for our children and young people, as Lord Darzi’s report highlights. Our children now have some of the worst health outcomes in Europe, with higher rates of obesity, diabetes and asthma, and poor oral and mental health. From head to toe, they have been failed. Will the Secretary of State ensure that the Government’s long-term plan for our NHS will give young people’s health the priority that it deserves?
Wes Streeting
I am delighted to see my hon. Friend in her place. She might be from the wrong side of the river, but she is absolutely right about the importance of prioritising children’s health. As the Prime Minister said this morning, it is shocking that the No. 1 cause of hospital admission among children aged between six and 10 is tooth decay. I was criticised by the shadow Secretary of State, who said that I called our children “short and fat”; she is more outraged by my calling out the scourge of childhood obesity that her Government fuelled than she is by the scourge of child obesity itself. That is why we will act and why the Conservatives failed.