NHS Winter Crisis

Debate between Philip Dunne and Paul Williams

Monday 8th January 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Dunne]

My hon. Friend highlights articulately the fact that proper co-ordination between local authorities and NHS trusts in some areas means that they can cope with the pressures better than others. I commend the example that she has given.

[Dr Paul Williams (Stockton South) (Lab)]

I worked as a doctor on the NHS frontline last week. I saw elderly patients who would have been better off being looked after at home by community and social care, and people waiting far too long for ambulances. Cancelling non-urgent work just makes more patients suffer. What does the Minister say to the woman with Crohn’s disease who is in pain and has terrible symptoms now that the bowel operation for which she has already been waiting for six months has been delayed again? The only way she will get the operation now is if things get even worse and she becomes an emergency case.

[Mr Dunne]

I put on the record my appreciation of the hon. Gentleman’s role not only on the Health Committee but in undertaking shifts, as he mentioned. On deferred procedures, we have given very clear instructions that time-critical operations should not be cancelled—cancer operations should not be cancelled. Ultimately, it comes down to the clinical decisions that are made at each hospital about who they should treat and who they believe can wait.