Access to Primary Healthcare
Debate between Stephen Kinnock and Munira Wilson(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
As well as needing more GPs, our GPs need decent premises from which to deliver high-quality care to patients. Park Road surgery in my constituency has been looking for new premises for more than a decade—it serves 13,000 patients out of an old Victorian house—but there simply is not the budget, and the processes are too complex. Will the Minister commit to both looking at the bureaucracy and pressing the Chancellor for more capital investment in primary care?
Stephen Kinnock
As the Darzi review shows, one of the most egregious examples of the neglect and incompetence of the past 14 years is the underspend on capital. We are clear that a number of premises across the country can be repurposed, and that the bureaucracy needs to be cleared out of its way. As the Prime Minister said earlier this week, we will have a mission about smart regulation and clearing the bureaucratic barriers to change.
We are also cutting red tape so that GPs spend less time pushing paper and more time face-to-face with the patients they serve. We are working to bring back the family doctors and to end the 8 am scramble. We have done more for primary care in the last 14 weeks than that lot did in the last 14 years.
On dentistry, we will introduce supervised tooth brushing for three to five-year-olds in deprived areas, ending the national scandal of tooth decay. And we are rebuilding the bridges that the Conservatives burned with the British Dental Association. I have already met the BDA, and we will deliver a rescue plan that gets NHS dentistry back on its feet, with 700,000 additional urgent appointments, starting as soon as possible, in those parts of our country that need them most.
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Stephen Kinnock and Munira Wilson(1 month, 1 week ago)
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Stephen Kinnock
I thank the hon. Gentleman for that question and the passion with which he put it. We are committed to rolling out Young Futures hubs across the country and, of course, we need to prioritise areas of particular need. I would be happy to meet him to discuss that further.
Munira Wilson (Twickenham) (LD)
A recent review of children’s mental health services in my local authority, the London borough of Richmond, found that, staggeringly, children with mild to moderate needs in tier 2 waited on average 15 months before receiving treatment, and those with more severe needs waited on average nine months. The Minister does not need me to tell him that during that time, children’s conditions get worse; they need greater treatment and, sadly, too many present at A&E self-harming and attempting to take their own life. As well as committing to mental health professionals in every school, will he put some money into acute provision, so that children do not end up in A&E?
Stephen Kinnock
We are absolutely committed to the three shifts: from hospital to community, from sickness to prevention and from analogue to digital. The sickness to prevention aspect is important in the question that the hon. Member raises. Treatable mental health conditions such as anxiety and depression should be identified early to prevent them from developing into something more serious and into a crisis, so I absolutely share the sentiment behind her question. They will be at the heart of our 10-year strategy for the future of our health.