NHS Corridor Care
Rebecca Long Bailey Excerpts(2Â months, 2Â weeks ago)
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Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford) (Lab)
Let me first offer huge thanks to my hon. Friend the Member for Tooting (Dr Allin-Khan) for her brilliant speech, and for the work that she does most weeks and about which, in my opinion, she does not speak loudly enough.
My mum has been rushed to A&E twice in the last two months, and I have been with her. The paramedics were amazing and the hospital staff were amazing, but nothing prepared me for what I witnessed: trolley after trolley backed up along corridors as hospital staff and family members visiting patients in A&E walked hurriedly up and down, trying to cause as little disruption as they possibly could. I saw staff trying to pull a curtain across halfway down the corridor to provide some semblance of dignity for vulnerable patients who were trying to use bedpans, but it was futile, given the number of people walking up and down. It was harrowing. I can only describe it as something that one would see in a war zone rather than in modern Britain.
When I asked the staff, “Is it always like this?” they said, “Yes. It comes and goes when it gets busy. It gets worse at weekends. But ultimately we do not have enough beds, and we do not have enough staff to be able to cope with this level of pressure.” I heard similar stories from my constituents, but I will give the House just one today. An 80-year-old who attended A&E with his frail wife spent 15 hours there, eight in a wheelchair and the rest on a trolley in a corridor.
This is not just a symptom of winter pressures; it is the visible sign of a healthcare system that has been stretched beyond breaking point by years of political decisions. For years we saw hospital beds disappear, staff vacancies grow, social care neglected, community health services hollowed out, and local authority budgets slashed, and the consequences were entirely predictable. Now we see patients who are well enough to leave hospital but have nowhere to go, emergency departments overflowing with wait times that no sick person should ever have to endure, and people being treated in places that were never designed to deliver healthcare.
No one should pretend that this can be fixed overnight, but if we are honest, we know that we have to act fast. Emergency departments are still operating beyond safe capacity, and people remain stuck in hospital because social care, community services, mental health support and general practice still do not have the necessary capacity. If we want to end corridor care, we must deal with its root causes, not just the consequences, because it does not just begin when someone arrives at A&E; it begins when they cannot get a GP appointment, when mental health support is not there, when local authorities cannot provide a care package. It begins when care cannot happen at home. Community nurses who should be visiting vulnerable patients regularly cannot do so, because they are stretched beyond breaking point.
There is a lot of talk about virtual wards providing hospital-grade care at home. That sounds brilliant, but the fact is that the system does not have the staff capacity to deliver it, so we need a properly funded long-term workforce plan that delivers fair pay, expands education and apprenticeships, improves retention, ensures that we have safe staffing standards, and gives frontline staff a real voice in how services are designed. It also means finally delivering a national care service that brings care back under public ownership and control, that delivers a universal entitlement to care based on need, not ability to pay, and that is publicly accountable, properly funded and built around people’s needs, not the fragmented marketised provision that we see at the moment. It also means investing in community nursing, neighbourhood health teams, rehabilitation services and mental health, so that fewer people reach crisis and more people can leave hospital safely when they are ready. It means taking prevention seriously too, because every £1 spent on improving housing, reducing child poverty, cleaning up our air, and supporting healthier communities strengthens public health and saves many more pounds further down the line.
Our NHS was founded on a simple principle—healthcare should be based on need, not the ability to pay—and corridor care betrays that principle. We need to see our Government restore the promise that when someone is at their most vulnerable, our national health service will be there for them—not in a corridor or on a trolley, but with the compassion, privacy and care that every person deserves.
Nottingham Maternity and Neonatal Services
Rebecca Long Bailey Excerpts(3Â months ago)
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James Murray
I thank the hon. Lady for expressing how she feels angry and upset. I think that that feeling is shared by all of us in the House today. The publication of Donna Ockenden’s report today has exposed the lifelong suffering of those families. The details of the action plan will be published by the end of the year, because we want to make sure that recommendations are not simply accepted and then not implemented. The recommendations must go into the taskforce, and the taskforce must produce that clear action plan, which we can then implement, and people can see us doing so. That is the way to break the cycle of recommendations that do not get implemented and to make progress towards the justice, accountability and change that I understand from families is so important to them.
Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford) (Lab)
The whole House is appalled by the neglect, contempt, and sheer trauma that these families have faced. I commend their strength and the strength of my hon. Friend the Member for Sherwood Forest (Michelle Welsh), but these themes are chillingly all too familiar. The Secretary of State will be aware that NHS England has taken enforcement action against the Northern Care Alliance in recent weeks over multiple safety concerns. Indeed, staff and I raised serious safety concerns relating to the gynaecology department directly with the trust as far back as last year, demanding urgent action, but little happened. Will the Secretary of State meet me to discuss these issues, and will he outline what action he will now take to ensure that patient safety, adequate resourcing and safe staffing levels are urgently addressed at the trust?
James Murray
I thank my hon. Friend for raising the important issues that she referred to in her remarks. I am happy to make sure that either me or a member of my ministerial team will meet her to discuss them in further detail.
Eating Disorder Awareness
Rebecca Long Bailey Excerpts(1Â year, 5Â months ago)
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Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford) (Lab)
It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Stuart. I thank the hon. Member for Bath (Wera Hobhouse) for her fantastic, articulate and passionate speech, and for the work she has done, along with the rest of the all-party parliamentary group, on this very important issue.
According to Beat, at least 1.25 million people in the UK—that is one in 50 people—are living with an eating disorder. As we know, eating disorders are complex health conditions that are often misunderstood or undiagnosed, which often prevents people from reaching out for help. Even when somebody is brave enough to reach out for help, or they reach a crisis point that requires intervention, they often struggle through a complex and underfunded system that does not provide the comprehensive help they need.
As we heard, in January the eating disorders all-party parliamentary group published a stark report that stated that NHS admissions for eating disorders exceeded 30,000 for the first time in 2023-24, that eating disorder services have become worse rather than better over the past few years, and that some NHS trusts are discharging patients with a body mass index of less than 15 and even as low as 11.1. The most recent report from Beat, “There’s No Place Like Home”, found that, worse still, only one in seven NHS areas in the UK provides the recommended level of intense community and day treatment for children, young people and adults, with 6% offering that for children and young people only and 10% offering it for adults only. Those are staggering statistics but, as we know, behind them lie the real human stories, which highlight the inadequacies of the system as it stands and the heartbreak that the individuals and their families go through.
Over the years I have dealt with a number of cases. A few years ago there was a particularly harrowing case of a teenage girl whose weight had dropped so low that she was in a life-threatening crisis a number of times, but nearly every time she needed hospital admission her family were informed that no specialist beds were available. In one instance, she was offered a bed on a general paediatric ward, where staff were not trained in dealing with eating disorders. She was put on a refeeding plan, but because there were no specialist staff, she did not eat anything significant and her weight dropped even further. In another instance she was offered a bed on an adult psychiatric ward, which is a frightening place for any teenager, and in another the family were told that there were simply no beds available and that if they were really worried about her, they should just go straight to A&E.
The situation has not improved in recent years. I have a story similar to the one we heard from the hon. Member for Horsham (John Milne). A local resident in Greater Manchester is in a state of crisis, but the only available bed they have been offered is in Glasgow, away from their family support system, which is essential to their long-term recovery. The Royal College of Psychiatrists is clear on the causes of the crisis. It says:
“Services are struggling to manage demand partially due to chronic staff shortages, historic underfunding and a lack of resources. They must be provided with additional funding so that they can meet the needs of patients and carers both now and in the future.”
It is certainly welcome that the Government have recently responded positively to the reports by the APPG and Beat, but I would be grateful for more clarification from the Minister on a number of recommendations—namely, on implementing a national strategy, which we heard about from the hon. Member for Bath; on additional funding for eating disorder services to address demand; on a confidential inquiry into all eating disorder deaths; and on non-executive director oversight for adult and children’s eating disorder services.
Oral Answers to Questions
Rebecca Long Bailey Excerpts(1Â year, 11Â months ago)
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Wes Streeting
Whatever stage the Bill got to, it was not completed, was it? We will bring back a tobacco and vapes Bill that is stronger than the Conservatives’ and I look forward to seeing if they support it.
Rebecca Long Bailey (Salford) (Ind)
Karin Smyth
My hon. Friend is right to raise the crisis of midwifery services. We have already had debates in Westminster Hall about this, and the issue affects the entire country. It is a priority for this Government, and I am of course happy to meet her to discuss her constituency issue.