Building an NHS Fit for the Future

Richard Foord Excerpts

Monday 13th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Amy Callaghan]

I absolutely would like to see the same for Scotland. The Barnett consequential system in itself is quite frustrating, because we do not see the full complement we should get because of how the British Government exercise spending decisions. I would absolutely like to see a different funding structure exercised down here. The way it is spoken about is complicated in itself, and a bit of truth around that would be useful.

I have been struggling with the image of the King delivering his speech from his gilded throne while innocent people in Palestine are dying. It feels a ridiculous thing for this Parliament to have been focusing on. We are witnessing the biggest humanitarian crisis that many, if not most of us, have ever seen. It bears witness to how soulless this British Government truly are. Children are dying, refugee camps are being bombed and hospitals are being destroyed. For each second that Members throughout this House fail to call for a ceasefire, more innocent people are dying in Gaza.

Not just a humanitarian pause but a ceasefire is necessary. Riham Jafari of ActionAid Palestine so aptly described the difference between a humanitarian pause and a ceasefire:

“What use is a four-hour pause each day to hand communities bread in the morning before they are bombed in the afternoon?”

Innocent men, women and children in Palestine continue to die. I make a plea to colleagues on both sides of the House: walk through the Lobby with us on Wednesday night to vote for a ceasefire. They need you to show leadership. We need to show leadership and vote for the SNP’s common-sense humanitarian amendment to the humble address.

In preparation for this debate, I found myself reflecting on the words inscribed on the mace of the Scottish Parliament: “Wisdom, Justice, Compassion and Integrity”. The mace is not just about tradition, and it is not a bit of a pantomime like in this Parliament. In Holyrood, the mace is there to signify the relationship between the people, the Parliament and the land.

No institution better represents the link between the people and the state than our precious NHS, but being tied to this financial Union means that our NHS is suffering terribly. We have workforce shortages, medication shortages and equipment shortages—shortages, shortages, shortages. I got into politics because of the rampant health inequalities I saw in my part of the world when I took unwell as a teenager. We all know health outcomes are impacted, whether directly or indirectly, by the quality of our support network. I saw first-hand the effect of poverty on outcomes. That is why I am so proud that our SNP Scottish Government implemented the young patients family fund, which helps to prevent income from being a barrier for families being able to support a young person through ill health. Scotland is leading the way in transforming lives and outcomes with that fund.

It would have been nice to see some flickers of hope and progress woven through the King’s Speech, but given the British Government’s lack of willingness to learn from good practice elsewhere on these isles, it is relatively unsurprising not to see it. The pomp and pageantry of this place, its traditions and its reactionary main parties seem to me to be a distraction from the real work and hard conversations that neither of the two main parties want to have. Instead, we have a celebration of the dance we call debate in this place.

I will now reflect again on the words inscribed on the Mace of the Scottish Parliament. Let us take a look at each and see whether they apply to the British Government. I will start with the wisdom that is being shown—or not shown—in this place where Brexit was forced through, despite the broken promises it was built on. What has come with that wise decision endorsed by both the Government and the Labour party? We have severe medicine shortages, meaning that people are unable to access vital treatments such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder drugs and hormone replacement therapy, as well as a shortage of staff to supply and distribute them. That oven-ready Brexit deal that the public were promised was lacking one key ingredient: wisdom. My constituents in East Dunbartonshire applied wisdom in advance when they overwhelmingly voted to remain within the European Union, but the structure of the Union meant that their voice was ignored.

Moving on to justice, where is the justice in there being so many material changes of circumstances since the 2014 referendum, while the British Government continue to deny the people of Scotland the right to choose our own future? Some might say that that is an injustice.

Moving on to compassion, there are many ways in which I could question the compassion of this place, but there is nothing more timely or truly horrific than the ongoing attacks on civilians in Gaza. We are witnessing the biggest humanitarian crisis many of us have seen in our lifetimes, and this place has rightfully expressed compassion for those killed and suffering in Israel, yet the compassion is lacking for those children in Gaza. Each day that this place fails to unite behind a ceasefire, children die. Where is the compassion for those children?

[Richard Foord (Tiverton and Honiton) (LD)]

Would the hon. Member get behind a unilateral or a bilateral ceasefire?

[Amy Callaghan]

I would get behind a ceasefire. We are talking about a ceasefire.

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[Mike Amesbury (Weaver Vale) (Lab)]

I pay tribute to our national health service and social care staff, be they in Cheshire, Merseyside or elsewhere across Britain. Of course, while many in Downing Street partied, those staff went above and beyond and sacrificed so much every day—we must not forget that; the public inquiry is certainly shining a light on it—and, importantly, they continue to do so.

It is no secret that our NHS is facing the worst crisis in history. Urgent action is needed to make our cherished healthcare system work again, but the Government provided no solution in the King’s Speech, with 21 Bills that were heavy in rhetoric but light in substance. Where was the Bill on mental health, which we have long awaited and the Government have promised time and again?

Bizarrely, after 13-plus years of failure, the Prime Minister is trying to paint himself as a vehicle of change, while recycling a failed Prime Minister from the past, whose only notable recent success was to get himself on the payroll of Greensill Capital, which came at a real human cost of 305 job losses in the Daresbury Park area of my constituency. This is a company—sorry, a failed company; a former company—that is now subject to an investigation by the Serious Fraud Office. We are still dealing with that sorry affair, yet bizarrely, that individual is now appointed to the Government. To me and my constituents, it sounds like the same old entitled Tories time and time again, with no responsibility to anybody, putting arrogance above all. It is the same old Tories—the same old Etonians—and one of them is coming back.

The Conservatives have no answers on how to save the NHS. This Government are failing millions of patients and NHS staff across the country. Waiting lists are out of control, staff are burned out, and people are literally losing their lives. Too many of our constituents are waiting longer than ever for operations, in A&E, for ambulances, and when trying to get doctors’ appointments. The system is broken; the Government broke our NHS. We only need to look at their own figures: recent statistics show that the NHS backlog has hit a record high, at 7.8 million. That backlog is 600,000 larger than when the current Prime Minister made his pledge—one of his five pledges—in January.

We on the Labour Benches know that there is a plan. There is a sizeable pot of money available from non-doms, the very people who, bizarrely, the Prime Minister seems to want to protect. It is almost as though he has a vested interest in non-doms—I cannot imagine what that might be. That money could be used to power up the frontline resources that we need to get waiting lists down. Why not adopt the Labour plan? Go and steal our plan. Let us provide 2 million more appointments by paying staff extra to work evenings and weekends, paid for by abolishing the Prime Minister’s beloved status of non-dom. Just do it—steal it! Do the right thing. Of course, that is not going to happen.

The NHS shortfall affects a number of other areas across the health landscape, especially dentistry in my constituency and throughout England. We know that 90% of dental practices in England are closed to new NHS routine patients, creating dental deserts. That is certainly true in the Halton and the Cheshire West and Chester parts of my constituency. People who have a little bit of extra money in their pockets are forced to pay for expensive payment plans in the private sector, but as has been well documented across the Chamber today, many are resorting to DIY treatment. It is an absolute scandal; it is Dickensian. In this day and age, everyone should have the right to receive dental treatment when they need it. That is a fundamental principle of the NHS—the NHS that we founded, and that we will protect and save.

Just as it is very challenging to get a doctor’s appointment, unfortunately the principle behind NHS dentistry continues to be severely undermined. I recently visited Leftwich Community Primary School, a brilliant school in my constituency with great teachers and support staff. The joint headteachers raised the desperate attempts that are made to try to get NHS dentists for pupils at the school. The teachers are going the extra mile, trying to get NHS dental appointments for children in the local community. What will the Government do to make sure there are enough dentists across England, including in Cheshire and Merseyside? Why not adopt Labour’s plan for an additional 700,000 dental appointments—quite a significant number, although it seemed to be pooh-poohed by a Minister earlier in the debate—by closing private equity loopholes? That is another costed plan—steal it! Do the right thing. Of course, the Government will not.

In my constituency, we have hospitals that badly need to be upgraded and modernised. Our bid for a new Halton campus hospital was snubbed by another Health Secretary—third time unlucky—while Leighton Hospital, which serves the Northwich part of my constituency, was successful only because it is literally falling down. It is propped up by scaffolding; it is riddled with reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. That is how it got on the programme for the 40 new hospital builds, which of course is a work of fiction in itself. I will be asking another Secretary of State for Health and Social Care—another one was announced today; I had forgotten about that—when the people of Halton can expect to hear some good news about that desperately needed hospital rebuild.

[Richard Foord]

I was interested to hear the hon. Member mention RAAC in his speech. I have heard that there is a hospital in Harrogate that needs £20 million of repairs because of RAAC, but the Government are requiring that hospital to bid for the funding, rather than just giving it the funding. Does the hon. Member think that is right?

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[Richard Foord (Tiverton and Honiton) (LD)]

I intend this evening to talk about rural and coastal healthcare, community hospitals, social care and NHS dentists. Right across the country, our NHS is creaking. In rural areas such as the one that I represent in Devon, many people are finding it almost impossible to get timely care. Despite that, there were almost no announcements in the King’s Speech of new legislation to support the NHS in rural areas. I really am wondering, given that I represent a corner of Devon, what was in this King’s Speech to provide for healthcare in the countryside. We often hear about acute challenges in urban areas, especially when it comes to vital services that we perhaps do not need to travel very far for, but coastal and rural areas tend to be places where older people retire to and so have a higher population of older people.

Last week Sir Chris Whitty, the chief medical officer, said that the elderly boom will be in rural, largely coastal areas. He said:

“We’ve really got to get serious about the areas of the country where ageing is happening very fast, and we’ve got to do it now...otherwise we will end up with large numbers of people leading much more dependent lives”—

that is, lives that are more dependent on the state and on taxpayers. We really need to get a grip of this. Sir Chris wrote:

“Improving quality of life in older age sometimes means less medicine”.

It might be that older people want to go to hospital, but not to intensive care. It might be that they want to have treatment, but not an operation. It seems to me that Sir Chris Whitty is encouraging us to listen to what older people want.

I held a listening exercise over the summer in which I visited 34 village and town halls, and I am certain that, more than anything else, people in my part of Devon want good community hospitals and good care close to their home. I heard that they do not want to have to travel 30 miles to the nearest acute hospital in Exeter, on a bus that can take up to 90 minutes, to see a loved one or to have an operation. Going to hospital is a huge burden for people living in rural areas like mine, where public transport is poor and declining in quality, meaning that people spend a whole day travelling to and from hospital, which is a huge undertaking for older people.

That is why community hospitals are vital. They offer bases for treatment, helping to support people in their own community. Sadly, we have been losing these centres in recent years. In my corner of Devon, we have seen the hospitals in Seaton, Honiton and Ottery St Mary suffer swingeing cuts. The cuts to the number of beds, made in 2017, were fought vocally by local people, and they are having lasting consequences.

My Adjournment debate will focus on Seaton Community Hospital but, in the meantime, I will talk about two other rural health challenges: social care and dentistry. The cost of providing care at home is higher in rural areas, both to those who pay for it and to those delivering it, because they are having to drive between appointments. That is why the Liberal Democrats are calling for a carers’ minimum wage, with an additional £2 an hour boost to the minimum wage paid to carers.

The situation for dentistry in Devon is even worse. Local NHS dentists are so up against it that not a single dentist in all of Devon is taking on new NHS patients. Healthwatch England reported on seven of the NHS’s 42 subregions that are not taking new dental patients:

“Of all of these areas perhaps the worst affected is Devon, as there are currently no practices showing as taking on adult or child patients.”

This means that people are having to live in agony; having to travel huge distances to far-flung destinations—I heard one constituent say that it was recommended that they travel to Gloucester for an NHS dentist; having to pay huge sums of money that they do not have to go private; or having to perform terrible, dangerous DIY dentistry to remove their own teeth.

The Government would prefer to be silent about this issue. We have a ticking time bomb of retirement looming, and the Conservative Government have rejected Liberal Democrat calls to reform the NHS dental contract or to set out a clear plan to recruit and train the thousands of dentists that we need.

Those challenges are specific to rural communities, but today I am also talking about challenges that are specific to coastal communities. The final subject I want to cover is therefore sewage dumping, which can be damaging to health. I know people who have become sick after swimming off the east Devon coast. People should not have to risk sickness on Devon’s beautiful beaches.

There was a raw sewage spill at Sidmouth on 10 September 2022, despite the water quality report by Surfers Against Sewage finding that there had been no rain over the previous 48 hours. What did South West Water, the water company responsible, have to say? It said the spill was a “false alert” due to wildlife brushing over the sensors on the combined sewage overflow monitor. What kind of Government would set up a regulator that was prepared to accept that as an explanation? Liberal Democrats want to see water companies overhauled and reformed into public benefit companies. We need to put the health and wellbeing of local people ahead of corporate greed and shareholder profits. That will stop people getting sick and ensure that our favourite beaches remain attractive places for tourists.

I wish to close by reading out the words of David Cameron. When he retired, he talked about how he did not think he was the right person

“to try to be the captain that steers the country to its next destination.”

That can apply to the whole of this Conservative Government.