Oral Answers to Questions
Tom Rutland Excerpts(2 weeks, 2 days ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Watch Debate Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Mrs Hodgson
I thank the hon. Lady for her good wishes. She may be aware that on 19 January, the Secretary of State met Jesy Nelson and Giles Lomax, the CEO of the charity SMA UK, to discuss the very issue of newborn screening for SMA. The NHS is planning an in-service evaluation offering SMA screening to newborn babies in England. The ISE is being brought forward to October 2026—it was originally planned for January 2027—so there will be more information to follow in October.
Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)
Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire) (Lab)
The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)
We inherited from the Conservatives an NHS facing the worst crisis in its history, with waiting lists at a record 7.6 million and public satisfaction at record lows. This Labour Government are getting the NHS back on its feet and making it fit for the future. We have delivered record numbers of appointments, tests and surgeries. Since we took office, waiting lists have been down to the lowest level in nearly three and a half years, and we are driving modernisation through our 10-year plan. Lots has been done, but there is so much more to do with a Labour Government.
Tom Rutland
Waiting lists at my local acute trust are down by more than 20,000 since the general election, which I welcome, but musculoskeletal waits remain a challenge in Sussex, with the Sussex MSK service holding about 10% of NHS England’s overall MSK waiting list. What more can be done to improve the performance of the service and get my constituents off the waiting list, back to health and back to work?
Wes Streeting
I am grateful to my hon. Friend for all the work he is doing, including with our Labour team in Worthing, to improve the health of people across his constituency. I congratulate staff at University Hospitals Sussex on the progress that they have made in bringing waiting lists down. To help them to go further, I am delighted to announce that my hon. Friend’s local community diagnostic centre in Southlands hospital will benefit from a new multimillion-pound MRI scanner to drive down waiting times, including for MSK patients. We are combining investment with modernisation to send crack teams of top clinicians to MSK community services, drive down waiting times and improve outcomes. That is the difference that a Labour Government make.
Maternity Services
Tom Rutland Excerpts(1 year, 2 months ago)
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Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)
It is a privilege to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. I thank the hon. Member for Chichester (Jess Brown-Fuller) for securing this important debate.
Maternity services are a vital part of our national health service. They are unique in that they are entrusted not only with the care of newborns at their most vulnerable and mothers at their time of greatest need, but also with ensuring that the wondrous process of bringing a new life into the world is a safe one. For many families, it is, and I thank those in our NHS who work tirelessly to deliver the best care they can, especially against the backdrop of 14 years of chronic underfunding of services and of conditions that are not acceptable in a modern healthcare system.
However, for too many families in East Worthing and Shoreham, and others served by hospitals in the University Hospitals Sussex NHS foundation trust, maternity services are not performing as they should, despite the hard work of many staff. All four maternity units in the trust have been determined by the CQC to be inadequate or requiring improvement, showing just how urgently that change is needed.
Behind each rating and category are the devastating experiences of real people. I have met families in my constituency who have had to endure the most tragic and unimaginable suffering as a result of having received inadequate care from the trust’s maternity services. Some families are living through the devastation of stillbirth. In one case, a baby with no underlying conditions, who in the eyes of all involved was completely healthy, tragically died. Numerous issues should have triggered additional monitoring and alternative care pathways, but they were never acted on. In that case, the trust admitted failures in care to the parents, but I am aware of failures in other cases.
Another family—who were, again, due to welcome into the world a healthy baby with no underlying health conditions—suffered horrendously because of misdiagnosis, delayed treatment and a missed opportunity for a caesarean. These errors were compounded by poor communication and note keeping, which resulted in clinical staff not being aware of earlier events, and yet another unimaginable tragedy taking place. Sadly, these families are not alone. A group of bereaved families in Sussex, who no doubt wish they had no reason to know each other, have come together to call for action to ensure that no expectant parents have to endure what they have gone through.
I am glad that our Prime Minister and the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care have rightly prioritised maternity service improvements as part of their plan to change our NHS. They too feel the urgency for change that many of my constituents feel.
I am grateful to the families in my constituency who have channelled their grief into the courage to share their harrowing stories with me, and to the Health Secretary for meeting families previously in the care of the University Hospitals Sussex NHS foundation trust to hear their experiences and calls for action. We need action. With a new baby born every minute, we cannot delay or defer making our maternity services safe for all, including by tackling racial inequalities in care. The need is now and the urgency is clear.
Oral Answers to Questions
Tom Rutland Excerpts(1 year, 9 months ago)
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Wes Streeting
I am proud that the Deputy Prime Minister will be delivering the commitment to build 1.5 million new homes. It is absolutely vital that the infrastructure needed is delivered alongside those new homes, and we and other colleagues across Government will be working very closely with the Deputy Prime Minister to make sure that the social infrastructure is also provided.
Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)
Karin Smyth
I welcome my hon. Friend to the House. He makes an incredibly important point about this very stressful time, particularly for women, in his area. We will listen to women and deliver evidence-based improvements to make maternity and neonatal services safer and more equitable for women and their babies, and we have committed to delivering the long-term workforce plan.