Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Dame Andrea Leadsom]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to point that out. Emma has my absolute sympathy and apology for the fact that since the covid pandemic we have not seen the recovery of dentistry that we would have liked. I can tell her that in July 2022 we brought in significant reforms to encourage dentists to take on more NHS patients, but we recognise the need to do more. The long-term workforce plan will increase training places and the overseas registration will improve capacity, as will the changes to dental therapists’ programmes. All those things will improve the situation, but in the meantime we will be bringing forward our recovery plan very soon, which will immediately expand the incentives to NHS dentists.

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

5. What steps her Department is taking to help reduce pressure on NHS services in winter 2023-24.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Victoria Atkins)]

Our plan includes opening 5,000 more beds, increasing ambulance capacity, expanding innovative services such as virtual wards and bringing forward covid and flu vaccinations for the most vulnerable. Thanks to the hard work of staff, NHS performance this winter has improved on last year, despite the impact of industrial action.

[Simon Lightwood]

I am sure the caveat to that was the word “shortly”. I have had constituents contact me in desperation regarding delays at Pinderfields Hospital in my constituency. They tell me they have waited hours in emergency care this winter for routine blood tests—literally all day in some cases—even while in extremely poor health. The Tories’ patchwork reforms and sticking-plaster politics are not fooling anyone. Does the Secretary of State not think that those dangerously long waiting times are a damning indictment of 14 years of Conservative mismanagement? What does she say to my constituents who are suffering right now?

[Victoria Atkins]

I am sure that the hon. Gentleman is a fair man, and that, being so, he will point out to his constituents, when they call him with their issues, that ambulance response times for category 2 emergency incidents in his local area have in fact been over 30 minutes faster than last year. However, we accept of course that this is a two-year plan and will take time to meet our full ambitions. Interestingly, the latest figures show that we have provided £6.9 million from the community diagnostic centres fund for the development of a community diagnostic centre at Wakefield. Presumably he welcomes that Conservative innovation.

NHS Dentistry

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Tuesday 9th January 2024 Commons Chamber

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am grateful for the opportunity to speak in today’s debate on such an important topic. Last year, I launched my “Save Wakefield’s Smiles” campaign to highlight the horrifying state of dentistry access across my constituency. I have had an avalanche of constituents contact me to share their heartbreaking experiences of trying to get an appointment in Wakefield.

With permission, I will briefly share two of those testimonials with the House. Anne is a 71-year-old pensioner entitled to free dental treatment, and she has been trying to get a dentist appointment for five years. She told me that she feels let down by this country. She says that she has worked all her life since she was 15 and paid into the system for her entire career, and now has to decide whether to heat her home or get her teeth seen to.

Steve says he has been waiting two years for an NHS dentist because he cannot afford the estimated £5,000 it would cost to fix his teeth privately. He says that the anguish he has experienced while waiting has severely impacted his mental health. Steve told me:

“I barely leave the house. I am too scared to change job because I worry no one wants to hire someone in desperate need of healthcare.”

Like Anne, Steve feels frustrated. He says that he does not think it is too much to ask to receive the care he pays his contributions towards.

Those are a handful of cases from my constituency, but I know that up and down the country, the story is the same. Nine out of 10 clinics in England do not have the capacity to take on new patients. Millions of our constituents simply cannot get an appointment, and this Tory Government have failed every single one of them. Perhaps most shockingly of all, one in 10 of our constituents now feel that they have no choice but to resort to their own DIY dentistry. What kind of country have we become? What sort of grim Dickensian dystopia have this shambolic Tory Government presided over, where people are pulling out their own teeth with pliers over a sink?

Colleagues will recall, I hope, my first ever question in Prime Minister’s questions last year. I pressed the Prime Minister on the national dental emergency. I looked him in the eye and told him how 25% of five-year-olds in Wakefield already have visible tooth decay. I told him how less than half of Wakefield’s children managed to get an NHS dentist appointment in 2022, and I told him how a constituent of mine had desperately telephoned every single dentist in Wakefield to find an appointment while his daughter cried in pain from her teeth, black with decay.

From the Prime Minister’s reply and follow-up letter to my question, you would honestly think he was living on a different planet. He boasted of the funding he is putting into NHS dentistry, boasted of the number of NHS dentists and boasted that he had made reforms to the NHS dental contract. In fact, the British Dental Association has stated that the Prime Minister’s boastful claims may have been inaccurate. I fear he may have inadvertently misled the House as a result. Indeed, the British Dental Association has been clear that it believes the Prime Minister “offered a grotesque misinterpretation” of his work to address the crisis. The Prime Minister may have promised a dentistry recovery plan last year, but months later nothing has been published and he has nothing to show for it.

The Prime Minister may have admitted last week that he is running scared of a May election, but we on the Opposition Benches could not be more ready to take our dentistry rescue plan to the British people. Labour will address the immediate crisis head-on by providing 700,000 more urgent dental appointments and recruiting new dentists to the areas most in need. To treat the long-term challenges, Labour will reform the dentistry contract, which is no longer fit for purpose in its current form. With a vital focus on prevention, Labour will introduce supervised toothbrushing in primary schools.

Unlike Government Members, who had a soft spot for announcing economy-crashing, uncosted policies under the previous Prime Minister, Labour has a dentistry rescue plan that would be fully funded by abolishing the non-dom tax status. We have an incredible, ambitious plan ready to go from day one of a desperately needed Labour Government. The Prime Minister may be scared of an election, but when I speak to my constituents and hear how badly we need to fix our public services, I know where I stand—bring it on.

Mental Health Treatment and Support

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Wednesday 7th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

West Yorkshire has among the highest rates of mental health issues in the country, with 28,630 children and 63,755 adults on waiting lists alone. The statistics show that Wakefield, specifically, is above average, with one in three people suffering from mental illness. As we all know, some of the primary causes are poverty, debt, poor housing and long-term physical health problems. Indeed, Eastmoor in my constituency has the highest prevalence of mental health illness, as well as those cause factors, too.

I know from my casework that the number of mental health cases coming into my office has been rising steadily over the past year. With mental health provision at breaking point, that is no surprise: more than 5.4 million hours waiting in A&E in 2021-22 for mental health patients; 1.6 million people stuck on long waiting lists for mental health treatment; and nearly 400,000 children currently waiting for treatment. On that last point about children, I am deeply concerned that Wakefield has the seventh-highest rate of under-18s under mental health care, with over 6,000 having contact with mental health services in the past year alone. Parents are left feeling helpless, watching their children’s mental health deteriorating as they linger on waiting lists for months, if not years, to access treatment.

Much of the problem is caused by the number of mental health nurses in the NHS now being lower than when Labour left office. It is unacceptable that people are left turning to A&E because of staff shortages in mental health. I have had cases where patients have been advised that they will have to wait a year for their treatment to start and such delays are becoming more common. Nearly 10,000 people in West Yorkshire had treatment closed without even receiving an appointment. After 13 years of the Tories running down our health services, we need a Labour Government that will guarantee mental health treatment within a month for all who need it, recruit thousands of new mental health staff and ensure that mental health specialists are in every school. The scrapping by the Conservatives of the 10-year mental health plan shows a total lack of long-term focus on those with mental health needs. That is why Labour would bring in the first ever long-term, whole-Government plan to improve outcomes for people with mental health needs.

With mental health services on their knees, I will be voting for Labour’s motion, and I hope the Government will finally give this area the attention it so sorely needs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Tuesday 6th June 2023 Commons Chamber

[Steve Barclay]

I share my hon. Friend’s desire for us to move at pace on the scheme. As he says, I have seen at first hand the importance of the scheme at Kettering, and I stand ready to work constructively with him to expedite that case, because I do not think anyone is in any doubt of the importance of the work at Kettering. It is a huge tribute to him and the way he has championed the case for Kettering that it was such a central part of the new hospital programme announcement.

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

In Wakefield, I am pleased to say that our campaign to save our city centre walk-in service has been successful, but every day people are still struggling to get a GP appointment. The latest NHS statistics show that, in April, 12,586 people waited more than 28 days. Quite simply, there are not enough fully qualified GPs. Labour has a workforce plan that is ambitious and costed. Where is the Government’s delayed and fully funded workforce plan?

[Neil O’Brien]

I have already mentioned that we have nearly 2,000 more doctors in primary care than we did in 2019, as well as the early delivery of the 26,000 extra clinicians we have brought into primary care. [Interruption.] The Opposition may not want to hear it, but the truth is that we have increased funding for general practice by about a fifth in real terms. We have more doctors and other clinicians, and GPs are doing 10% more appointments every month. We want to continue to build on that, which is why we have the primary care recovery plan and why we have invested a further £645 million in enabling people to get treatment from their pharmacists, freeing up 10 million more GP appointments. We know we must go further, but we are making progress.

NHS Workforce Expansion

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Tuesday 28th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

I am pleased that the Labour party has tabled this Opposition day debate this afternoon. Like Members from across this House, I have been inundated with emails from constituents who, despite the heroic work of NHS staff, have had terrible experiences with the health service this winter. Let me share just a couple of accounts from Wakefield. A constituent contacted me after his wife had faced a gruelling 15-hour wait in Pinderfields A&E. Another was forced to wait for 11 hours while suffering with a twisted bowel. Another attended A&E after being unable to get a GP appointment for excruciating muscle pain. They waited for 14 hours on a metal chair before being sent home. Unfortunately, that person is not alone.

Many people across Wakefield are struggling to get GP appointments too. Patients at one surgery in Wakefield were sent three text messages in one week to tell them that routine appointments were not available. When people cannot see a GP and cannot get to see a practice nurse, they do not get the—sometimes essential—early treatment they need. That adds pressure to the NHS in the future and can have serious consequences for people’s health. This is shameful, and it is no surprise that on the Tories’ watch public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to its lowest level since 1997.

Before I was elected to serve the people of Wakefield, I was immensely proud to work for the NHS for several years. It is blindingly obvious from the discussions I have had with former colleagues that the biggest issue right now is with the workforce, but it does not have to be this way. Labour has a fully-costed, fully-funded plan, which is not a sticking plaster but the long-term solution that the NHS needs: doubling the number of medical school places; training 10,000 extra nurses and midwives every year; doubling the number of district nurses qualifying each year; and creating 5,000 more health visitors. This is a really exciting plan for the future of the NHS, not only delivering what is so desperately needed, but investing in people’s careers too. And it is people’s careers that are at the heart of this.

I do not know whether Members saw the damning BBC article by Jim Reed yesterday following the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch report, which monitors safety in the NHS in England. The article said that many staff cried during their interviews. One NHS worker gave the following account to the BBC:

“I spent four hours with an end-of-life patient. There was no hospice or district nurse available, so I had to make the choice to give them meds for a peaceful, expected death and prepare the family.

I felt ashamed that I could not stay till the end, but I had to move on to the next job as I had done all I could.”

Another paramedic said:

“The bad sides give me nightmares, flashbacks and fear, but they can also make me hyperactive, sleepless and sometimes not care about the danger I put myself in”.

It is no wonder that more than 40,000 nurses left the profession in England last year, leaving chronic shortages. Many of those who have left recently were only recently qualified—nurses who had spent years in training, but could no longer tolerate the pressure and burn-out. Many of those who stayed are having to take time off. Almost a quarter of all absences are due to anxiety, stress and depression, with hundreds of thousands of days lost each month. It is a real reminder to us here that what we decide now has far-reaching implications for the future.

The good news is that Labour has a plan to tackle the crisis. It is a plan that will be paid for by scrapping non-dom tax status, an unfair tax rule that gives tax breaks to the rich and that can no longer be justified. I know that people across Wakefield agree that we need nurses much more than we need non-doms.

I hope that the Government will adopt the motion and deliver Labour’s plan to tackle the workforce crisis. If the Government will not listen, I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) will be ready to implement our plans under the next Labour Government, who will put patients first and get our NHS back on track.

NHS Industrial Action: Government Preparations

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Monday 12th December 2022 Commons Chamber

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Minister challenged back on who had the power to avert these strikes. Let me reiterate what my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) said: trade unions have been clear that strikes can be averted if Ministers initiate face-to-face pay negotiations. So far, they have completely failed to do so. The power to stop these strikes lies squarely with the Secretary of State. How can the Government justify refusing to even talk?

[Will Quince]

We have already been clear that we would be very happy to meet the unions, and I understand that a meeting is being organised, but let me reiterate the point about what exactly the Royal College of Nursing is asking for: an uplift that is 5% above RPI inflation. Uplifting pay for all staff—this is based on 19.2%, within the agenda for change—would cost approximately an additional £10 billion. The hon. Member for Rhondda (Chris Bryant) talked about things like test results; the £10 billion that we would spend on such an uplift is £10 billion that would come out of the NHS budget. That is £10 billion that we would not be able to spend on hugely important issues such as tackling the elective backlog.

Oral Answers to Questions

Simon Lightwood Excerpts

Tuesday 19th July 2022 Commons Chamber

[Steve Barclay]

I am very happy to look into that specific issue, which I know my hon. Friend has raised with the Department. I am happy to have further conversations with him.

[Simon Lightwood (Wakefield) (Lab/Co-op)]

The GP survey out last week shows that the proportion of people reporting their overall GP experience as very poor or fairly poor doubled between 2021 and 2022. Instead of picking a fight or blaming someone else, will the Secretary of State tell us what he will do to ensure that people in places like Wakefield can see their GP when they need to?

[Steve Barclay]

Far from blaming anyone else—notwithstanding the fact I have been in post for less than two weeks—I have set out a range of things we need to do, because this is a shared challenge that affects all our constituents, and it is within the context of increased demand. The May figures show a significant increase in appointments—1.31 million appointments per working day this year compared with 1.24 million last year. There is increasing demand, and we need to harness GP time, the skills mix and better use of technology.