Christmas Adjournment

I add my good wishes to you, Mr. Deputy Speaker, to hon. Members and to the staff who support us in the House. I would like to use the opportunity of this Adjournment debate and the presence of the Minister on the Front Bench to reflect on perhaps the most important issue that has dominated my constituents’ thoughts on policy—and I suspect those of many others—over the past year: our local NHS. In doing so, I do not expect that 2007 will be any different. Indeed, the issues that have troubled my constituents over the past year look set to continue to dominate their lives going forward. In thinking about the NHS locally, my constituents do not share the Secretary of State’s view that this has been the ““best year ever”” for the NHS—rather the reverse. Across the board in our health economy, we have seen cuts, question marks over long-planned initiatives and a level of uncertainty that is troubling to those of us who depend on the national health service for our livelihoods or for the sake of our health. In my constituency, we have been waiting for a new hospital for many years. There are two hospitals that serve the constituency. One of them, in Pembury, consists of a workhouse that was built in the 1890s. I suggest that there are very few examples in the country of workhouses that are still being used as NHS hospitals. The main workhouse is supplemented by wooden huts—again something unbelievable in 2006. The other principal hospital, the Kent and Sussex hospital, is in a congested part of my constituency, in the heart of town. Even though it is a 20th century hospital, its facilities are out of date. For example, it has mixed-sex wards at a time when patients expect the privacy and dignity of single-sex wards. I place on record my gratitude and admiration for the staff in the NHS in my constituency, who work in conditions that are at times intolerable and manage to deliver a standard of health care that is extremely proficient and compares well with other parts of the country. They do so because they have a vocation to provide the best health care that can be available. We owe it to them, as well as to my constituents, that they should be able to operate in the types of facilities that other constituencies take for granted. We have been waiting for many years for a new private finance initiative hospital to replace those facilities. We received some good news today: the Maidstone and Tunbridge Wells NHS Trust has felt able to appoint a preferred bidder for the new hospital. That bidder, Equion, will develop its exciting plans further. It should be a state-of-the-art hospital, in which 100 per cent. of the rooms will be single ones. That will address the privacy issue at a stroke and will make a major contribution to infection control. The hospital will be a beacon for the NHS and will represent best practice around the world. Over the past year, there has been delay after delay in the original decision to build the hospital. It should have been well on the way to being built by now. We were expecting a preferred bidder to be appointed in February, but various Department of Health and Treasury reviews put that further and further back. The final decision will now be taken in March 2007 by the Treasury and the Department of Health, based on the financial situation locally and nationally. The case for the new Pembury hospital is overwhelming. No one could deny that the team in the local trust has put together the best possible bid and case, or that it had addressed all the questions before it. Any fair-minded person would recognise that it is time to build that hospital, and to get on with building it quickly. I urge the Deputy Leader of the House to take back to his colleagues in government the strong feelings of everyone in not just Tunbridge Wells, but west Kent and east Sussex, that we need this hospital now. As time goes by, we know that construction costs are liable to increase, so time is precious. It is not just the PFI hospital that troubles us. Unfortunately, a series of cutbacks and proposed cutbacks were announced during the past year, and decisions will be taken during the months ahead. Let us consider some of those. Antenatal classes might not be considered the most pressing need in our health service when it is cash-strapped, but the provision of parentcraft classes to new parents is of significance to first-time parents, who are understandably worried about what lies in store and have no experience of looking after a new child. They benefit from the practical help given by midwives and other health professionals on how to cope with labour and childbirth. More than that, antenatal classes provide an important transition into the early weeks and months of a child’s life. Ministerial statements over recent months have told us how important the early years are to the development of a child, so increasing the anxiety and stress on parents at that time is unforgivable. It is also important that we have established social networks, in which new parents can meet each other and give each other support, outside state provision. That is an important means of self-help, and the provision of antenatal classes is important to that. I gather from the managers of the local NHS trust that the trouble is that the new funding formula does not include a specified element for antenatal classes, so at a time when the trust needs to recover its deficit, it is easy to cut such services. Another threat to the provision of childbirth services that is proposed by the local primary care trust is a cut of up to one third in the health visitor service. The proposal aims to focus health visits on new mothers who are perceived to be at risk. I am concerned about that, because it is difficult to know in advance whether a mother, especially a first-time one, is likely to experience post-natal depression. We know that post-natal depression strikes people down very unexpectedly, and the visit of a health professional shortly after birth can be crucial in protecting the health of the mother and her new baby. I am very concerned that the proposals may jeopardise the future health of my constituents. I am aware that the Government nationally are reviewing the provision of health visitor services, and it would be appropriate if, in different parts of the country, we benefited from the conclusions of that review before we took any decisions that might be precipitous. Another much valued institution in the health economy of Tunbridge Wells is the homeopathic hospital, which has been in the town for over 100 years. It is one of only about half a dozen in the country. I myself have not benefited from homeopathic remedies, nor do I have any great enthusiasm for them, but many of my constituents feel that those treatments help their conditions, especially chronic conditions. The Minister’s colleagues have said repeatedly in recent months how important it is to consider the treatment of chronic conditions rather than just acute care. What is innovative about the homeopathic hospital in Tunbridge Wells is how it combines conventional and alternative remedies. It offers not only homeopathy but various other complementary remedies. The proposed savings from cutting homeopathic services are in the order of £160,000 a year, but people who are using those services will not just disappear from the system. They have conditions that need to be treated; they are likely to be treated in other, conventional ways, and will be paying more visits either to the acute sector or to their GP. It would be misguided to regard a saving of £160,000 as a realistic prospect, and it would be regrettable to lose something that is very valuable and provides choice in the health economy in the area. Finally, we have in and around west Kent cottage hospitals that are under threat. Although there are no cottage hospitals in my constituency, those at Tonbridge and at Hawkhurst serve my constituents. At a time when Ministers have recognised the importance of community institutions in promoting health care, it is regrettable that those hospitals have a question mark over them, especially when they are among the most cherished institutions in our local communities. They have benefited from the hard work, the fundraising efforts and the voluntary activity of local people over many years. At a time when we are spending record sums on the NHS—something that I welcome—it is galling and troubling to my constituents that across the board we have such question marks over the provision of future services and delays to some of the most longed-for changes to those services. Health will be at the top of the list of concerns for my constituents in 2007. I am grateful to have had the opportunity to raise with the Minister the concerns of my constituents, and I hope that tonight, or when these questions are referred back to the Secretary of State, he might be able to provide some new year reassurance to my constituents that the Government will think carefully about the measures proposed. In particular, I hope that they will look favourably and urgently on the Pembury hospital proposal.