Health Bill

Tom Gordon Excerpts

Report stage
Monday 7th September 2026 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. After the next speaker, there will be a four-minute time limit, but I will not reduce it further than that.

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

I would like to start by welcoming the commitment from the Minister at the Dispatch Box to bring forward a maternity commissioner, and by thanking my hon. Friend the Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for her tireless campaigning on this issue. When I worked for her many years ago, I was all too aware of the scandal at the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust, after sitting in on surgeries with her. Indeed, in my own constituency of Harrogate and Knaresborough, I have ended up with tireless campaigners coming to me when they face maternity issues at Leeds hospital.

I turn to the amendments tabled in my name. The first is new clause 36, which would require the Government to bring forward a formal transition strategy and to report back to Parliament on what happens when NHS England is abolished. I have tabled the new clause out of concern for families who have lost loved ones at the hands of the Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys mental health trust. They have said time and again that they are concerned about the delayed appointment of a chair to the inquiry. They are really worried about that as we see the largest changes to the health service in a generation, and they do not want the inquiry to be lost. I press the Minister on whether she might be able to push that forward or get her colleagues to do so.

New clause 43 would reduce inequalities in access to clinical research funding and trials. I have been working closely with Yorkshire Cancer Research, based in Hornbeam Park in my constituency. We know that funding for clinical research and trials across Yorkshire is about a quarter of what is received in London. If areas outside London and the south-east are getting less research funding, the logic follows that we will struggle to close inequalities in those areas.

[Dan Aldridge (Weston-super-Mare) (Lab)]

I think the hon. Member’s point about health inequalities is really important. The number of cancer cases is expected to rise by about 30% by 2040, and England already has fewer radiotherapy machines per head than comparable European countries. Weston-super-Mare does not even have one, despite being the size of the city of Bath. Does he agree that that needs to come in conjunction with the rest of the investment he is talking about?

[Tom Gordon]

I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman. My hon. Friend the Member for Westmorland and Lonsdale (Tim Farron), who is not here, is campaigning tirelessly on radiotherapy and radiography. The point I was making about those health inequalities is that regions such as Yorkshire have a high incidence of cancer and of poorer outcomes, so we need to close that funding gap to close those inequalities.

New clauses 61 and 93, both in my name, pertain to NHS dentistry, and I have also added my name to and support many other new clauses. New clause 61 would have made sure that there is adequate provision of dental appointments in Harrogate and Knaresborough. Over the last two years in my constituency and across North Yorkshire as a whole, the number of people with access to an NHS dentist appointment is down from 50% to just 37%. When this arises in casework and at surgeries, the issue is often precipitated by those who work in A&E telling me traumatic stories of people reaching A&E as a result of emergency dental care or the lack of it. In particular, we have heard some harrowing stories from local children about their inability to focus in school. New clause 93 would require the Secretary of State to publish before Parliament a regular report on the state of NHS dentistry, including that unmet need, and also to pay particular attention to workforce capacity and distribution.

[Vikki Slade (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)]

In Dorset, we have lost 44 dentists in the last five years, and there has not been a single new contract for 10 years. Is my hon. Friend suggesting that his new plan would reverse that by enabling us to see exactly where the gaps are in the system?

--- Later in debate ---

[Tom Gordon]

I agree with my hon. Friend that we need to see that, and I tabled new clause 93 to get the answers to some of those questions that not just constituents in my patch but those in hers are asking us as Members of Parliament. It is particularly frustrating that we are in the third year of this Labour Government, and although talk of dental contract reform kept cropping up at the outset, we have seen little progress since, so I would press the Minister on what more can be done to make sure those gaps are filled.

On new clause 121, I am the chair of the all-party parliamentary group for diabetes, and we have some fantastic care and world-leading practice for diabetes, as was mentioned by the hon. Member for Uxbridge and South Ruislip (Danny Beales). This new clause would maintain existing national diabetes prevention, treatment and audit programmes, and would mean we see an explanation from the Government with regular reports in Parliament about how those are being continued.

Overall, Members across the House have tabled a fantastic number of amendments. I hope the Minister will pay attention to them and can provide us with some responses.

[Anna Dixon]

I worked as a civil servant for the coalition Government, and I saw at first hand some of the duplication and confusion caused when NHS England was set up, so I welcome this Bill and the decision to abolish NHS England. However, reversing the fragmentation caused by the Tories’ failed reforms of the NHS will not on its own create a more integrated and joined-up service for patients and carers. That is why I have tabled new clause 106, which would require the Secretary of State to report to Parliament within six months of the Act passing on how well NHS bodies and local authorities are working together to integrate health and social care in England.

Having worked in the health and care sector, I know how vital it is to have integrated services, and I know as an MP, as I am sure do others, and from personal experience how devastating unco-ordinated care can be for patients, their families and our NHS. One of my constituents, Ellerie Carroll, was diagnosed with diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, an inoperable brain tumour, in September 2024. Very sadly, she died in May this year, aged just nine. Ellerie and her parents, Freya and Christian, suffered in ways that are unimaginable, but it was a lack of co-operation between services that added to their suffering. To give just one example, after going for a MRI scan at Great Ormond Street hospital, Ellerie had to endure a repeated scan at Leeds General Infirmary in Leeds due to an inability to share results between hospitals. I hope that the single patient record, which the Bill also creates, will help to join up systems and reduce such problems.

We see disjointed care within the NHS between hospital and community services, but also between health and social care. Another constituent, Roger, in his 90s, had a fall and serious head injury last year. After the acute hospital treatment in Leeds, there was a failure in the NHS to join up his care with Bradford social services, resulting in delays to his discharge. He developed infections and delirium. After nine months of being moved from one hospital to another, and despite his wife fighting to get him home with support, he died in hospital. These are the consequences when our health and care systems are not integrated. It is also expensive. Around one in 10 hospital beds in England are occupied by someone who does not need to be there, often because community care or social care are not available.

Any reform of the NHS will ultimately fail unless we simultaneously reform adult social care. That is why I welcome the priority given to this issue by the Prime Minister and the commitment he made to bring forward the conclusion of the Casey commission. But even if we build a national care service, which we must, there is a risk if it does not work in sync with our national health service. It is essential that we place very clear obligations on all parts of the NHS to co-operate and integrate with social care.

I ask the Minister to set out in her closing remarks how she and the Secretary of State will monitor the Bill’s impact on integration, and how they will ensure co-operation remains a critical priority for the NHS—not just on paper, not just in law, but in the way that we all experience health and care in a joined-up way.