I am pleased that the Labour party has tabled this Opposition day debate this afternoon. Like Members from across this House, I have been inundated with emails from constituents who, despite the heroic work of NHS staff, have had terrible experiences with the health service this winter. Let me share just a couple of accounts from Wakefield. A constituent contacted me after his wife had faced a gruelling 15-hour wait in Pinderfields A&E. Another was forced to wait for 11 hours while suffering with a twisted bowel. Another attended A&E after being unable to get a GP appointment for excruciating muscle pain. They waited for 14 hours on a metal chair before being sent home. Unfortunately, that person is not alone.
Many people across Wakefield are struggling to get GP appointments too. Patients at one surgery in Wakefield were sent three text messages in one week to tell them that routine appointments were not available. When people cannot see a GP and cannot get to see a practice nurse, they do not get the—sometimes essential—early treatment they need. That adds pressure to the NHS in the future and can have serious consequences for people’s health. This is shameful, and it is no surprise that on the Tories’ watch public satisfaction with the NHS has fallen to its lowest level since 1997.
Before I was elected to serve the people of Wakefield, I was immensely proud to work for the NHS for several years. It is blindingly obvious from the discussions I have had with former colleagues that the biggest issue right now is with the workforce, but it does not have to be this way. Labour has a fully-costed, fully-funded plan, which is not a sticking plaster but the long-term solution that the NHS needs: doubling the number of medical school places; training 10,000 extra nurses and midwives every year; doubling the number of district nurses qualifying each year; and creating 5,000 more health visitors. This is a really exciting plan for the future of the NHS, not only delivering what is so
desperately needed, but investing in people’s careers too. And it is people’s careers that are at the heart of this.
I do not know whether Members saw the damning BBC article by Jim Reed yesterday following the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch report, which monitors safety in the NHS in England. The article said that many staff cried during their interviews. One NHS worker gave the following account to the BBC:
“I spent four hours with an end-of-life patient. There was no hospice or district nurse available, so I had to make the choice to give them meds for a peaceful, expected death and prepare the family.
I felt ashamed that I could not stay till the end, but I had to move on to the next job as I had done all I could.”
Another paramedic said:
“The bad sides give me nightmares, flashbacks and fear, but they can also make me hyperactive, sleepless and sometimes not care about the danger I put myself in”.
It is no wonder that more than 40,000 nurses left the profession in England last year, leaving chronic shortages. Many of those who have left recently were only recently qualified—nurses who had spent years in training, but could no longer tolerate the pressure and burn-out. Many of those who stayed are having to take time off. Almost a quarter of all absences are due to anxiety, stress and depression, with hundreds of thousands of days lost each month. It is a real reminder to us here that what we decide now has far-reaching implications for the future.
The good news is that Labour has a plan to tackle the crisis. It is a plan that will be paid for by scrapping non-dom tax status, an unfair tax rule that gives tax breaks to the rich and that can no longer be justified. I know that people across Wakefield agree that we need nurses much more than we need non-doms.
I hope that the Government will adopt the motion and deliver Labour’s plan to tackle the workforce crisis. If the Government will not listen, I know that my hon. Friend the Member for Ilford North (Wes Streeting) will be ready to implement our plans under the next Labour Government, who will put patients first and get our NHS back on track.
3.40 pm