Oral Answers to Questions

Steve Darling Excerpts

Tuesday 11th February 2025 Commons Chamber

[Stephen Kinnock]

I would be delighted to meet my hon. Friend so that we can get into a bit more detail about what is happening in his constituency, but he is absolutely right to point to the need for more and better community health services. That will be at the heart of our shift from hospital to community in the 10-year plan that we are delivering.

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

Health authorities in Devon are set to trial the relocation of a vital coronary service from Torbay to Exeter, which is 24 miles away. Will the Minister meet me and fellow south Devon MPs who have grave concerns about the impact on patient safety?

[Wes Streeting]

It is important that people are able to get the right care in the right place at the right time, and I recognise the challenges, particularly in geographies such as Devon and Cornwall, which have more rural and remote communities. In the first instance, I encourage the hon. Gentleman to take this issue up with local health leaders and his integrated care board, but Ministers are always open to receiving representations beyond that if he needs further reassurance.

Rare Retinal Disease

Steve Darling Excerpts

Thursday 23rd January 2025 Westminster Hall

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dame Siobhain.

I congratulate the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) on securing the debate. He rightly highlighted how inspirational it was to see Chris McCausland winning “Strictly Come Dancing” a few weeks ago. Chris McCausland shared three words at the end of that journey: “opportunity, support and determination”. Those play out well in respect of the challenges we face, which the hon. Members for Strangford and for Leicester South (Shockat Adam) unpacked extremely well.

At an event last night hosted by the all-party parliamentary group on eye health and visual impairment, a gentleman with retinitis pigmentosa told us that when he was diagnosed at the age of eight, his mother was taken aside and told, “This child should be sterilised at a certain age. That is the best way of sorting out this condition.” That is absolutely horrific, and I am heartened that, a little under 50 years later, the world has moved on.

My visual impairment was diagnosed about 45 years ago. I suffer from Stargardt disease, which is one of the two significant areas in terms of inherited conditions. I was deeply upset as a young lad, mostly because I was not able to be a lorry driver; I idolised my father, and that was my aspiration.

Visual impairments have a significant impact on people’s ability to fulfil their aspirations, as colleagues have highlighted, but they also impact opportunities. Twenty-five thousand people across the United Kingdom are affected by such conditions, and 75% of people registered blind are sadly unemployed, so we are condemning people who have drawn from the lottery of life; they are very much more likely to be unemployed than other people in their communities.

I have discovered that the cost of such conditions is £500 million a year, in a number of different pots. That includes not just the cost of medical intervention, but the cost to society of supporting each individual. Some 95% of these hereditary conditions are untreatable, potentially until the not-too-distant future.

The hon. Member for Strangford laid out the challenges for NICE. We are in a perverse situation at the moment—almost an anti-Goldilocks situation—where one falls between two stools: it is a rare disease, but it is a relatively common rare disease, and therefore does not fit within the ultra-rare criteria, so one falls between two stools. I hope the Minister will give serious consideration to the two conditions—retinitis pigmentosa and Stargardt’s—where significant numbers of people will be impacted by falling between those two stools. I reflect again on the words of Chris McCausland: give us opportunity, support and determination.

New Hospital Programme Review

Steve Darling Excerpts

Monday 20th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

As my hon. Friend says, I must declare an interest, as Whipps Cross hospital and Barts health NHS trust serve my constituents. I would be delighted to lead a delegation with her to lobby the Minister of State for health, my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol South (Karin Smyth), who has to take decisions on schemes that affect my constituency. It would be nice to be on the other side of exchanges for the first time in a while. Let me reassure the constituents of my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy), and my own, that pre-construction work on Whipps Cross hospital is due to begin in 2029 to 2031, with construction beginning in 2032 to 2034. My constituents know me well enough to know that if we could go faster, we would do so. On alternative investment vehicles and means of raising additional capital investment—not to mention learning from some of the less successful initiatives of the past—I would be delighted to work with Treasury colleagues and Government Members on how we can get more capital investment, but for reasons that she will well understand, we need to tread carefully on that point.

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

The Secretary of State inherited Torbay hospital where we have had almost 700 sewage leaks, many of which have impacted clinical areas of the hospital and, sadly, that is set to continue. The hospital operates at 98% bed capacity, which only results in poorer services for residents, and that is set to continue. Will he reflect on the fact that many people in Torbay will fear they have suffered the impact of the national insurance hikes in our low-wage economy, but without seeing much of the gains for our hospital?

NHS Backlog

Steve Darling Excerpts

Monday 6th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I beg to move,

That this House has considered backlogs in the NHS.

Happy new year to you, Madam Deputy Speaker. I thank the Backbench Business Committee for granting the debate. I applied for it because many Members were interested in having the chance to discuss the problems and consult constructively on the potential solutions for the NHS across the country. It has ended up being a particularly timely debate given the Secretary of State’s statement this afternoon, which we broadly welcomed.

The Conservatives have pushed the NHS to breaking point, leaving a legacy that includes the biggest waiting list in history and a healthcare system on the brink of collapse. We have reached a crisis point of backlogs in the NHS system. They affect not only those who are in dire need of medical care, but the wonderful staff who work tirelessly in hospitals, GP surgeries, dental surgeries, pharmacies, social care providers, hospices and so on. The situation in Shropshire right now demonstrates the scale of the crisis.

The pressure is extreme on every aspect of healthcare and reflects the fact that in many cases rural areas are bearing the brunt of a national problem. Shropshire’s NHS has declared a critical incident—one of many across the country, I know—as staff battle to cope with the huge winter spike of viruses. That means that people cannot visit their loved ones on a regular basis, and are required to wear a mask when they go into the hospital. That is just one example of how the system is failing to cope with the pressure.

Understandably, talk about NHS backlogs centres on the 7.5 million cases waiting for treatment. But backlogs also apply to the overflowing A&E waiting rooms and to the long lines of ambulances queuing outside. They apply to the elderly people who have fallen and waited many hours for an ambulance. They apply to possible heart attack and stroke patients being told to make their own way to hospital by West Midlands ambulance service at certain times this year. Outside Shrewsbury and Telford hospitals last Sunday—the latest day we have data for—ambulances waited an average of three hours and 48 minutes to hand over a patient. Across England on the same day, 2,620 patients had to spend more than an hour stuck in an ambulance waiting for space to become available at A&E.

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

In my constituency, our hospital faces almost 700 sewage leaks, which has an impact on its ability to provide services. That is another pressure. Does my hon. Friend agree that the sooner the Government advise on what investment they will make to enhance services for our hospitals across the UK, the better?

[Helen Morgan]

I had not put the crumbling estate into my speech, but my hon. Friend makes a very valid point, because people cannot work efficiently when they are dealing with terrible hygiene and safety issues around them every single day.

Community Pharmacies: Devon and the South-west

Steve Darling Excerpts

Tuesday 17th December 2024 Westminster Hall

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Betts. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) on securing this important debate.

A number of primary care providers, including GPs, dentists, opticians and pharmacists, spoke to Devon MPs a few weeks ago. They shared with us the crisis that the frontline of the NHS currently faces. They also shared another challenge that I ask the Minister to reflect on: how national operating framework 4 puts additional pressures on services in Devon, and how the integrated care board is challenged in respect of some decisions, perhaps where fewer prevention opportunities have been taken. That has increased pressures on primary care, with more money spent on acute services. The Government rightly highlight the fact that, in children’s services and adult social care, prevention is better than cure, and it is the same for this area of the NHS.

My constituency has 22 pharmacists serving communities across Torbay. Sadly, we have lost seven pharmacists in recent years, significantly increasing the pressure on those that still trade, which is a grave concern. We have an older population, leading to greater footfall for our helpful pharmacists. I also reflect on the fact that 10 years ago the NHS spend on support for pharmacists was 2.4%, and it is now 1.6%. If our plan is prevention, that is going in the wrong direction. Colleagues have rightly raised the Pharmacy First approach, which has saved a little under 500 GP appointments in the Torbay constituency; we need to push harder on that agenda.

I would like to curry a little favour with the Minister by sharing with him the fact that the first manifesto I bought had a picture of his father on the front of it. I still have it up on my shelf, despite my wife regularly asking me to clear out my office. I would like the Minister to reflect on whether NOF4 is part of the problem rather than the solution for NHS services, and to ensure that we get the long-term funding for pharmacies that is the strength they need to build on.

[Several hon. Members rose—]

NHS Dentistry: South-west

Steve Darling Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2024 Westminster Hall

[Steve Darling (Torbay) (LD)]

I thank you, Mr Vickers, for ably chairing the debate, and my hon. Friend the Member for Honiton and Sidmouth (Richard Foord) for securing it.

I represent Torbay, which is sadly a dental desert. We have more than 2,200 people on our waiting list, desperate to receive support from a dentist. I fear that is just a shadow of the reality of the need there, because people think that it is a forlorn hope to be able to register for a dentist. More than half the adults of Torbay have not seen a dentist in the past two years. More than a third of children have not seen a dentist in the past year. This is a cocktail of severe dangers for the health of communities across the United Kingdom.

I have spoken to a number of residents since being elected, and I want to share a couple of examples of how the situation is impacting on real people. One of them told me that she was halfway through treatment to resolve challenges in her mouth when her dentist withdrew, leaving her with a job half done. She still suffers with pain and is upset about her dentistry needs.

Another resident, Kirstie, tells me that she suffers with a condition that means she is highly likely to develop mouth cancer. She is meant to receive three-monthly checks yet, as she has no NHS dentist and cannot afford a private practice dentist, she is having to go without. That is resulting in severe depression and her having to medicate for those depression issues. That is not where the United Kingdom should be.

Coastal and rural communities face real challenges in dentistry. When we look at the national picture, urban areas tend to be rich in dentists; our far-flung areas are much more challenged. I am delighted that we are looking at about 700,000 new emergency appointments, but how many of those will happen in Torbay? On the renegotiation of the dentists’ contract, how will we be able to take account of rurality and coastal issues as part of the mix?