Building an NHS Fit for the Future

Nick Fletcher Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Nick Fletcher (Don Valley) (Con)]

It is a great honour to speak today, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Steve Tuckwell) on his maiden speech.

Today we are looking at the role of our NHS, which we can all agree is one of the most important institutions of our great nation and, as such, one of the most well-funded, too. With an organisation as big as this, waste is always going to be discussed. Middle management and back-office staff are always targeted, poor private finance initiative contracts always raised. Then there are the millions spent on dilapidated hospitals, when really we should be replacing them—Doncaster Royal Infirmary is a glaring example—and cutting money spent on ideologies with their numerous flags and handsomely paid equality and diversity officers who earn far more than the nurses. We all must agree that, as much as there is waste within the system, we are also creating unnecessary costs outside the system. The NHS costs the taxpayer an enormous £168 billion each year. Record sums are spent year on year by this Conservative Government. But what can we, as individuals, do to help?

The difference between Conservative and Labour Members is that we on the Government Benches believe in personal responsibility. This can be seen in a whole manner of ways: eating and drinking sensibly; getting plenty of exercise; and stopping smoking. Then there are simple things that we could do, like keeping our GP appointments. Appallingly, each day, one in five appointments—20%—in one practice in my constituency is not kept by patients, taking away appointments that others could have, and with no consequences for those who miss them. We all know this and if we all took personal responsibility, we could save the NHS billions of pounds each year. I challenge the people across this country to take charge of their health and do their part in securing the future of our NHS.

Another area of our health that we need to look at collectively is mental health. There were people hoping that there would be something on mental health in the King’s Speech, but I think we can do much more ourselves, without relying on the Government. There appear to be many young people who are struggling with their mental health. Two questions arise: why, and what can we do? When I go into schools and meet young people, or receive letters from them, many seem so confused and afraid. We seem to be encouraging our children to be ashamed of this country’s past, and raising concerns and fear-mongering about its future and their futures too, when there is so much of which we should be proud. We seem to be encouraging them to look inwards to find an identity, when they already have a brilliant one. Relationships, sex and health education and literature in our schools deny the basic building blocks of life, such as that a man is a man and a woman is a woman. We teach them myths of 100 identities. We confuse their language with misuse of pronouns. We tell the boys that they are a problem to society and we compound that by telling girls that all boys are bad. We tell them that their future is doomed because of climate change. We encourage their parents to work from home, which, as we know, is increasing school absenteeism. Then we ask, “Why are so many young people struggling with mental health problems?”

There were many items in the King’s Speech that I believe are important to my constituents: the Victims and Prisoners Bill, leasehold reform, oil and gas licensing to keep our lights on, a Media Bill to regulate streaming services, the animal welfare Bill for the animal lovers and, for football fans, a regulator to ensure that they are consulted, among other items. Since in this debate we are speaking about the NHS, however, I encourage all of us to take personal responsibility for our own health and, much more than that to help the young people in our lives.

We must teach young people to be proud of the place where they live and the body they were born in. We need to be role models that they can aspire to, teaching them that looking outwards is so much better than looking inwards and for oneself, that being there for our fellows is better than narcissism. Getting off the computer and phone and being part of the community is the best thing we can do for our mental health. Then, just maybe, we can save the NHS some money, or at least save the resources for those who really need them.

I have two more points to make, one national and one local. The first is that we need a men’s health strategy. Some 13 men will have taken their lives today, 13 men will have died of prostate cancer and 88 men will have died of heart disease. It is a crying shame that we do not have a men’s health strategy. We have a women’s health strategy, and it is right that we have one, but we need one for men too. Locally, we have a phlebotomy clinic that is about to close. If ever there was a case of an integrated care board not listening to the people it is meant to be serving, it is this. We need to save that clinic. It takes the pressure off the GPs and it is a service that the people of Doncaster need.

There was much in this King’s Speech that we can look forward to over the next 12 months, to help this country to be great again. However, unless we all start taking personal responsibility, we will become a nanny state where the Opposition will be teaching us how to clean our teeth, which just proves that that is all they have to say.