Helen Morgan MP: speeches

Speeches

• 24 Jun 2025 · Department of Health and Social Care · Hansard source

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  I congratulate the acting Chair of the Select Committee, the hon. Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton), on securing this important debate and on her excellent opening speech on the risks inherent in the spending review settlement. The Conservatives left our NHS in a disgraceful state that is impacting every one of our constituents. On their watch, people with life-threatening emergencies were left waiting hours for ambulances, hospitals were left to crumble, and accessing a GP became a huge challenge. The collapse of NHS dentistry has left some people pulling out their own teeth at home. It is essential that the new Labour Government are bold and ambitious in turning the NHS and care sectors around. The Liberal Democrats support the principles of the Secretary of State’s three shifts and have stated on many occasions the alternative means we would use to raise the necessary funds, but today’s debate is about how the money should be spent. I was pleased that the Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s statement last week incorporated a measure that the Liberal Democrats have long called for, not least in our last Opposition day debate in April: a ringfenced fund for maintenance, to deal with the huge repair backlog that has built up across the NHS estate. However, I must reiterate the need to go faster with the new hospital programme. We know that the Conservatives’ plans were unfunded, but this capital spend must be brought forward so that crumbling hospitals in places like Torbay, Watford, St Helier and Stepping Hill can be rebuilt as soon as possible, because spending billions on maintaining buildings that face demolition in the next 20 years is not a wise use of taxpayers’ money. The Liberal Democrats believe that the crisis in the NHS—particularly in accident and emergency—cannot be solved unless we transform social care. We have long argued that investment in the NHS will be pouring good money after bad if hospitals cannot discharge patients because there are no care workers to help them recover. The fair pay agreement for care workers is a start, but it will not touch the sides of the yawning abyss of current and forecast vacancies in the care sector. At a bare minimum, we need a higher minimum wage for care staff to stop the sector haemorrhaging workers. It is more urgent than ever that the cross-party talks for which the Government had such enthusiasm at the start of the year are reinstated. The terms of the Casey review, which leaves fundamental restructuring of the care sector to 2036, are not ambitious enough. The review needs to be completed this year, so that meaningful change is not put off while our population ages. I turn to mental health. The Darzi review outlined in stark terms the fact that mental and physical health are not given parity in the health service; mental ill health takes up 20% of the caseload and only 10% of the funds. Proper investment in mental health is essential to the shift from treatment to prevention. It was disappointing to see the Government abandon mental health waiting list targets and reduce the overall proportion of money spent on mental health, while proclaiming that they were meeting the mental health investment standard because, at integrated care board level, there had been a fractional increase. I urge the Minister to ensure that mental health is given priority, and to ensure that prevention, through early intervention, can bring about improved outcomes. Yesterday, the Secretary of State announced a new national investigation of maternity services. I was disappointed that no oral statement was made. Many MPs represent constituents whose families have been left distraught by maternity service failings at Shrewsbury and Telford, East Kent, Morecambe Bay, Nottingham, and potentially other trust areas. Those voices deserve to be heard in Parliament, but that opportunity was denied. I welcome the inquiry, but remain dismayed at the slow progress since Donna Ockenden’s shocking report into the Shrewsbury and Telford hospital trust in spring 2022. She recommended 15 immediate and essential actions for national implementation; three years later, that has not happened, and the Government have removed the ringfence from funding intended to ensure safe staffing levels. Her findings were consistent with those after other maternity scandals, and the Government accepted her recommendations. It is vital that the inquiry moves the situation forward and is not used as a distraction tactic to delay real action. Before concluding, I will raise the subject of the fundamental reorganisation of the NHS, which is being undertaken without any meaningful parliamentary scrutiny. NHS England announced the decision to slash ICB running costs by 50% by the end of this year, with detailed plans to be submitted by the end of last month. No impact assessment for that drastic change was undertaken by the Department and, as far as I can see, there is no funding from the Treasury for potential redundancy costs and no confirmed redundancy scheme. ICBs will be expected to transfer some statutory duties to other trusts without that change being on any formal statutory footing. The guidance from the soon-to-be-abolished NHS England has been hastily prepared. If ICB money can be spent more efficiently, the Secretary of State has our support, but surely such radical change requires scrutiny, particularly when it was not in the Labour manifesto and there has been no White Paper, no consultation, no legislation, and not even a short ministerial statement on the subject. We would all appreciate the opportunity to better understand how the process will improve outcomes for our constituents. The new Labour Government face an enormous challenge in turning around an NHS left at breaking point by the Conservatives. The Liberal Democrats’ job as an effective Opposition party is to urge the new Government to go further, faster, in tackling the issue of access to GPs and dentists, in ending the appalling scandal of corridor care and dangerous ambulance waiting times, and in bringing urgency to the issues of spiralling mental health waiting lists and the crisis in social care.

• 19 Jun 2025 · Incontinence · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to see you back in the Chair, Mr Deputy Speaker. I thank the hon. Member for Dudley (Sonia Kumar) for securing this important debate and for outlining the issues so well in her opening speech, particularly the importance of breaking down the taboos surrounding incontinence and the social isolation that can result from it. I have carefully scribbled out the term “incontinence” all the way through my speech and hopefully replaced it with “bladder and bowel control issues”—forgive me if I have missed one. I recognise the importance of prevention and specialist treatment. The hon. Member for Dudley highlighted the benefit to both individuals and taxpayers from investing in women’s health up front, and I echo that call. There have been lots of excellent contributions, but I thank the hon. Member for Wolverhampton West (Warinder Juss) for raising the scandal of pelvic mesh implants. I thank him for highlighting that issue and the need for redress there. Incontinence, or bladder and bowel control issues, can have a hugely detrimental impact on a person’s wellbeing and sense of dignity, as we have heard. Despite affecting millions of people across the UK, it is the subject of stigma, and the needs of those with bladder and bowel control issues are not properly considered in many aspects of life. All too often, people suffering from these issues are left without the right support, whether that is the uncomfortable bladder pressure tests that the hon. Member for Gravesham (Dr Sullivan) referred to, or the lack of access to sanitary bins in public and workplace toilets. It has been widely assumed for many years that sanitary bins for men are not required in public toilet facilities. As we have heard, many millions of men are affected by bladder and bowel control issues. The absence of sanitary bins has a wholly unnecessary and damaging impact on their self-esteem, causing embarrassment and stress and, as we have heard, withdrawal from public places and the workplace. The cost is tiny but the benefits for those affected can be significant. There has been progress in this area, thanks to the work of campaigns such as Boys Need Bins by Prostate Cancer UK, but there is much further to go. That is why it is crucial that we support all individuals with the condition by ensuring access to services such as public toilets and sanitary bins, as unfortunately that is not the case. Under the last Government, 19% of public toilet facilities—nearly 600—lost their local authority maintenance and funding between 2015 and 2021 alone. Liberal Democrat research from 45 councils found that the number of public toilets had fallen by 14% from 2018-19 to 2023. Many local authorities are on the verge of bankruptcy and do not have the spare capacity for these vital services. Proper funding of local authorities to provide services such as public toilets and sanitary bins could make a truly meaningful difference for people with bladder and bowel control issues, and I hope the whole House will agree that these individuals deserve access to basic facilities. There is also a clear need for more research into developing better treatments and mitigations for people suffering from bladder and bowel control issues. Crucially, these should avoid unnecessary discomfort or invasive procedures. As such, I support what the hon. Member for Gravesham has said. The University of Aberdeen has found that women with ongoing urinary incontinence can avoid invasive bladder pressure tests, and that non-invasive assessments work just as well in guiding treatment. An emphasis on respecting people’s dignity and reducing discomfort should be at the heart of how we approach the testing, treatment and mitigation of these issues. We also know that these issues—particularly bowel incontinence—can place a significant strain on family carers carrying out personal care, who are often under-supported and suffer from ill health themselves. Many care requests go unmet; last year, the King’s Fund estimated that nearly a third of requests for local government funding result in no support for care at home. This means that there are many thousands of families struggling with the realities of caring for a loved one with bladder and bowel control issues, which can include not only feelings of shame and embarrassment —both for them and for their loved one—but difficulty with lifting and moving a family member to clean them, and in accessing the equipment necessary to cope. That is why dealing with the crisis in social care should be a top priority for the Government. When the Secretary of State phoned me—and, presumably, the other national party health spokespeople —over the Christmas break to let me know that he was instigating the Casey review and cross-party talks to find a long-term solution to that crisis, I was hugely encouraged. Since then, the Casey review has been delayed, and the cross-party talks have apparently been cancelled. I must stress that each party giving its view to Baroness Casey is not the same as sitting in the same room and agreeing a long-term funding plan. The review’s terms of reference will not deliver meaningful reform until the next Parliament, and there is a huge risk that, again, nothing will be done by the Government of the day—in this case, despite them having a huge majority to achieve whatever they want. Meanwhile, the number of people needing care increases every year, and the step change required to transform the sector becomes larger and less politically palatable. As such, I urge the Minister to speak to the Secretary of State and help him to recover the enthusiasm for change that he showed over Christmas, because he will have my full support. However, there are simple steps that can make a difference now, such as hospitals working with family carers ahead of discharge to ensure that they are equipped to carry out heightened personal care needs. In many places, that support is not delivered, let alone ongoing support and meaningful respite care. Wait times for a continence assessment vary across the country—it can take weeks and weeks. Improving those wait times would ensure that the right care and equipment is available much sooner. There is also a chronic shortage of speech and language therapists, who can make a real difference in helping people with limited or no speech to more easily communicate when they need the toilet or want to be changed or washed. That is particularly essential in cases in which those people suffer from bladder and bowel control issues. Incontinence is not properly reflected in how we organise paid social care. For instance, too often the pay for domiciliary carers and the time they are expected to care for any one person do not reflect the fact that someone’s need for care might vary hugely from day to day. Any embarrassment, frustration and discomfort for the person being cared for will only be made worse if their carers are rushed, stressed and overworked, and if spending longer at one house could mean that those carers are effectively having to work for free. I also want to highlight the importance of good care in hospital settings. NHS England’s 2018 “Excellence in Continence Care” guidance states that “pathways of care should be commissioned that ensure early assessment, effective management of incontinence, along with other bladder and bowel problems such as constipation and urinary tract infections and their impact on social, physical and mental well-being”. I highlight this because my constituent Trevor Collins died on 21 May 2022 as a result of aspiration pneumonia and small bowel ileus, due to a small bowel obstruction caused by constipation. The coroner concluded that neglect at Royal Shrewsbury hospital and a failure to manage Mr Collins’ constipation contributed to his avoidable death. It is essential that healthcare settings follow the NICE guidelines that are in place, not only to preserve dignity but to prevent serious harm and—in the worst cases—even death. Liberal Democrats recognise the seriousness of the issues surrounding all types of incontinence and bladder and bowel control issues, and the critical importance of ensuring that people with those conditions can live in dignity. The Minister will have heard the calls in my speech. I hope she will commit to repairing our broken social care system, reinstating cross-party talks and wrapping up the Casey review this year, so that we can make the reforms that are necessary for long-term stability in the sector and the dignity of all those receiving and providing care.

• 17 Jun 2025 · Care in the Community · Hansard source

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  As we have just heard, it is widely acknowledged that the crisis in social care is a cause of dangerously high occupancy rates in hospitals that lead to the horrors of corridor care, the dreadful ambulance waiting times that we have seen and a knock-on effect on the community. When I was contacted by the family of a terminally ill man in Wem in my constituency last month, I was reminded that not only is care often provided in the wrong place, but it is often not available at all. Will the Government bring forward the timeline for the horribly delayed Casey review to report back, get it done this year and heed Liberal Democrat calls for cross-party talks so that we can agree on a long-term solution for the crisis?

• 17 Jun 2025 · Medicine Supply Chain: Community Pharmacies · Hansard source

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  Across the country, community pharmacies struggle not only with supply chain problems but with dispensing some of the critical medicines for our constituents at a loss. I was concerned to read that higher prices for United States pharmaceuticals are on the table for the next stage of trade negotiations with Donald Trump, because an additional £1.5 billion would cost both the NHS and our community pharmacies dear. What steps is the Department taking to ensure that the NHS, and the vital medicine supply on which we rely, will not be used as a bargaining chip in a trade deal with a highly unreliable US President?

• 9 Jun 2025 · Local Authority Funding · Hansard source

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  Shropshire council’s finances have been left on the brink by 16 years of Conservative administration. It is the largest landlocked county in England, and it is struggling with about 85% of its budget being spent on social care. When the Minister does his fair funding review, will he look at the difficulty and costliness of delivering services over such a wide rural area and ensure that councils such as Shropshire, which has lost its rural services delivery grant, will be able to sustain themselves in the future?

• 2 Jun 2025 · Government Announcements · Hansard source

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  Integrated care boards had their budgets cut by 50% via a phone call from the interim head of NHS England to ICB leaders, and that announcement was only made formal in response to a written question that I put to the Secretary of State. Half of NHS targets were cut without a statement in the Chamber, and although there was a statement in the Chamber on the abolition of NHS England, it has been carrying on at pace without so much as a White Paper, a Bill or any opportunity for effective parliamentary scrutiny. Will the Leader of the House give us an opportunity to look at and scrutinise this fundamental reorganisation of the NHS, which is so far going under the radar?

• 19 May 2025 · NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service · Hansard source

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  I was a volunteer vaccination steward during the pandemic, and the Liberal Democrats are hugely grateful to the thousands of volunteers who have made a difference to the lives of patients and vulnerable people in their communities since the pandemic ended. Their compassion and commitment have been inspiring. We are concerned that the end of the programme has been announced at extremely short notice; there will be no further shifts in just 12 days’ time. Will the Minister reassure the House that those currently receiving help from the volunteer scheme, such as collecting prescriptions or fetching shopping, will not be left high and dry after next Saturday? Has the Department conducted an impact assessment? If so, will it publish it? As with so many major decisions, such as dropping cross-party talks on social care or cutting funding for integrated care boards by 50%, it is concerning that the Government did not come to the House first to answer questions from hon. Members. Will the Minister reassure the House that these decisions will improve patient care and that they are not just a cost-cutting exercise dictated by the Treasury?

• 19 May 2025 · Mental Health Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  My hon. Friend is making an important point about lack of provision. Does he agree that the 10-year timescale for ensuring that that provision is available is critical? If the Government could speed that up, it would be extremely helpful in instances such as this.

• 19 May 2025 · Mental Health Bill [Lords] · Hansard source

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  I welcome this piece of legislation, which I think is generally in a very good place. I have had a tragic situation in my constituency, where somebody who had been admitted to hospital in a suicidal state discharged themselves, after which, unfortunately, no follow-up care was provided, and they took their own life. It has been devastating for their family. Would the Secretary of State consider looking at how the community supports people experiencing a mental health crisis who might have discharged themselves, and how we can keep them safe in future?

• 8 May 2025 · Brain Tumours: Research and Treatment · Hansard source

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  I thank the hon. Member for Mitcham and Morden (Dame Siobhain McDonagh) and my hon. Friend the Member for Witney (Charlie Maynard) for bringing forward this debate. It has been a privilege to sit through such excellent speeches on this very important topic. I am sure that the hon. Lady’s sister Margaret would be very proud of her, and I am sure that my hon. Friend’s sister is proud of him too. As the hon. Lady and my hon. Friend have outlined, a brain tumour diagnosis can be utterly devastating and life-changing. Some 12,000 people a year are diagnosed with a primary tumour, while many others are diagnosed with a secondary tumour that has spread from elsewhere in their body. Primary tumours are largely unpreventable, and cause the death of more adults and children under 40 than any other type of cancer. As primary brain tumours do not spread around the body like other cancer types, they do not receive the same staging categorisation. Current NHS programmes for diagnosing cancers earlier do not include brain tumours, as they focus on targets and improvements for catching more cancers in stages 1 and 2. Nearly half of people diagnosed—49%—are found to have a so-called benign tumour, a grade 1 or 2 tumour that grows more slowly. Those tumours are not technically cancerous, so they are not covered by previous cancer plans or initiatives for improving cancer care. However, the treatment and care for patients with a low-grade tumour has long-lasting impacts and can be life-altering. I would like to mention the experience of my constituent Madi Ruby, who has tirelessly campaigned and fundraised on this issue. She has experienced both a grade 1 and a grade 2 tumour. She first experienced symptoms of a brain tumour in 1995 with numbness in her right arm, and went on to write backwards and develop headaches. She went for a CT scan when that numbness spread to her foot and she was involved in a minor car accident. Only then was she diagnosed with a grade 1 meningioma measuring 6 cm, which was removed—she was only 23 at the time. Although that surgery was successful, Madi developed partial epilepsy. She was eventually discharged after five years of clear scans, but as we have heard, tumours still impact lives. She has had poor mental health and become depressed, and in 2013, her brain tumour returned. That tumour has also been removed, but she still deals with partial epilepsy, constant headaches and migraines, and suffers daily. She is also an inspirational person; she has bravely spoken out about her depression, trained to be a counsellor, and is now an associate dean responsible for nursing and allied health professionals at Wrexham Glyndŵr University. I also want to mention my constituent Shaun Burgess, who raised more than £11,000 for the Brain Tumour Charity and the Meningioma Support Group by running 3,000 miles across Shropshire last year. He was raising money after his wife Mo was treated for a non-cancerous tumour, but not everyone diagnosed with a brain tumour gets that second chance; Shaun has lost a friend to a more aggressive brain tumour. We must end the tragedy of people losing their lives because treatment for brain cancer took too long to start. As my hon. Friend the Member for Witney has outlined, progress on the treatment of brain tumours has not been good enough. The diagnosis and treatment of cancer should be a top priority for any Government, and the UK should be a global leader in cancer research and outcomes. I urge the Minister to listen to the pleas of Members from across the House on that point today. For so many people, diagnosis and treatment are too difficult to access. My constituency is a typical example. The major hospitals in Shrewsbury and Telford face a number of challenges and regularly have some of the longest waiting times in the NHS for cancer screening and treatment. In December 2024, just 64% of patients were treated within the 62-day period, despite the target being 85%. The average across England was much better, but still poor at 71%. Not only do too many people live in treatment deserts, but when they are finally offered the treatment they need, it is hard to access. Anyone living in rural North Shropshire would say that. Having waited anxiously for weeks or months for a scan and the result, they then, if the news is bad, have to travel extremely long distances for the treatment they need. Most of North Shropshire is an hour and a quarter away from a radiotherapy centre on public transport. For patients with brain tumours, public transport is fundamental if they can no longer drive. One of my constituents has faced exactly that problem, having had their driving licence suspended by the Driver and Vehicle Licensing Agency after being diagnosed with a tumour. Apparently that could be remedied if his consultant provided a BT1 form, but he has not been able to get through to the doctor. In the meantime, he is trapped without freedom in a constituency with some of the worst public transport in the country. Ongoing funding issues, which we know are a huge challenge for the Government, continue to afflict brain tumour patients in a number of ways. Another constituent of mine told me their experience after being referred to a care navigator following their diagnosis. The care navigator’s job is to contact patients on a monthly basis, seeing whether they have any problems and concerns and guiding them through an experience that is extremely traumatic. However, the care navigator position has now been cut, and my constituent has been left in the dark, with growing anxiety and no one to speak to. No one should be going without treatment because there is not enough equipment, and no one should suffer because there are not enough staff to support them. What would Liberal Democrats do? We would recruit more cancer nurses, so that every patient has a dedicated specialist supporting them throughout their treatment. For brain tumours, we would like to see an improvement in diagnosis, the care people receive and the range of treatment options available. Diagnosis targets need to reflect the fact that brain cancer does not occur in stages in the way that other cancers do—otherwise, we risk brain tumours falling through the cracks of NHS targets and objectives. Low-grade brain tumours, such as that suffered by Madi, need renewed attention, including in the upcoming cancer plan, which we look forward to seeing. The Liberal Democrats have committed to boosting cancer survival rates more generally by passing a cancer survival research Act, which would require the Government to co-ordinate and ensure funding for research into the cancers with the lowest survival rates, such as brain tumours. We would halve the time for new treatments to reach patients by expanding the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency’s capacity and ensuring that every patient starts their treatment for cancer within that 62-day urgent referral target. We would replace ageing radiotherapy machines and increase their number so that no one has to travel too far for treatment. Measures such as Margaret’s law, which the hon. Members who secured this debate have pressed for, would be an important step in the right direction to improve research in glioblastoma in particular, and I urge the Minister to consider that too. Do the Government have any future plans for allocating support to research into vaccine treatment for brain tumours, which has reportedly shown remarkable progress against glioblastoma in recent studies? Too many patients with brain tumours have been let down by previous Governments over many years, and I hope that this Government will step up and make brain tumours, cancer and NHS care their No. 1 priority.

• 8 May 2025 · Brain Tumours: Research and Treatment · Hansard source

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  How well will that work be co-ordinated if it is done on a local, sporadic basis, and how will the repurposing of drugs be co-ordinated centrally if NHS England is no longer undertaking that work?

• 6 May 2025 · Topical Questions · Hansard source

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  In his statement to the House just after Christmas, the Secretary of State acknowledged that cross-party consensus is essential to delivering meaningful social care reform. The Liberal Democrats support him in that endeavour, but we still do not have a date for those cross-party meetings, so will he give us one now?

• 6 May 2025 · Maternity Improvement Strategy · Hansard source

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  Too many families in Shropshire have suffered the agonising loss of a baby following the scandal at Shrewsbury and Telford hospital NHS trust. The Care Quality Commission rates 65% of trusts as inadequate or requiring improvement for maternity safety, and the taxpayer forked out a staggering £1.15 billion in compensation for maternity failings last year. With the £100 million put aside to deal with unsafe staffing no longer ringfenced, can the Minister reassure us that those safe staffing levels will remain on our maternity wards?

• 30 Apr 2025 · Gender Incongruence: Puberty Suppressing Hormones · Hansard source

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  I have met with Dr Cass. We have considered the Cass review, and we are in support of the clinical trial that she has recommended. That is why I am asking the Minister to clarify some of the points that have been made as that trial progresses. When that decision was made to indefinitely ban puberty blockers, it obviously caused some concern and uncertainty for the families that are affected. Would the Minister commit to publishing the supporting evidence, including the results of the consultation, to give those families confidence in the decision to ban their prescription? With any medical treatment, especially for children and young people, it is most important that the clinical professionals follow the evidence on safety and effectiveness. I welcome the Government’s support for the research to improve evidence on the safety and efficacy of potential treatments; that research must take into account the direct personal experiences of those who have used those services in the past. More broadly, Liberal Democrats believe that all trans and non-binary people should have access to the high-quality healthcare that they deserve, and that Government should prioritise tackling unacceptable waiting times by expanding the provision of appropriate and timely specialist healthcare through NHS child and adult services for trans and non-binary people, ensuring that trans people have access to high-quality healthcare on the same basis as we would expect for all patients, with medical decisions made by patients and doctors together, informed by the best possible evidence, and supporting research using international best practice to improve evidence on the safety and efficacy of potential treatments. For puberty blockers specifically, it is for expert clinicians to build the evidence base and determine whether they are safe and effective. I do not think any politician, such as me, who does not have that clinical experience or evidence to hand should be making pronouncements on whether or not they are. We need the NHS to act on building up that evidence base, and for the Government to provide certainty that they will follow the evidence and expert advice when that is available. Children and young people with gender incongruence are uniquely vulnerable, potentially facing an identity crisis, difficult relationships at home and social isolation at a very young age. It is extremely important that they are treated respectfully, safely, quickly and in the way that is best for their long-term health and personal development. It is unlikely that the same treatment will be appropriate for every individual in that situation, but when it comes to any individual medical interventions, Liberal Democrats believe it is right that those decisions are made by clinicians and patients together, informed by the best possible evidence, as is the case in all areas of healthcare.

• 30 Apr 2025 · Gender Incongruence: Puberty Suppressing Hormones · Hansard source

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  It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Ms Lewell. For too long, children and young people who are struggling with their gender identity have been badly let down by low standards of care, exceptionally long waiting lists and an unacceptably toxic public debate. That is why Liberal Democrats have been arguing for much better specialist healthcare services for children and young people who find themselves in this distressing situation. The old system, a single clinic, with a shockingly long waiting list and rated “inadequate” by the Care Quality Commission, was clearly failing vulnerable young people at the most difficult time in their lives. Before GIDS closed, more than 5,000 young people were stuck on the list and left waiting for an average of almost three years for a first appointment. For vulnerable teenagers and pre-teens, going through what are often incredibly difficult experiences, those three years must have felt like an eternity. Liberal Democrats have consistently campaigned for action to tackle appallingly long wait times across the NHS, whether for cancer treatment or mental health, and it is right that we do so for gender identity services as well. It is clear that change is needed. That is why we have long been pressing the Government to establish new specialist services and recruit and train more specialist clinicians, so that children and young people can access the appropriate, high-quality healthcare that they need. The move to create multiple new regional centres is, therefore, a very welcome one, but only two are open now—in London and the North West—leaving those who have already been stuck on waiting lists for years to wait even longer. There is no sign yet of when the other centres will open. Would the Minister be able to give us an indication of when they might? Unless the Government show far more urgency in getting these centres up and running properly, more and more children will be denied the care they need as they languish on those long waiting lists. While it is right that treatment is largely based on talking therapies for both the child and their parents to give all gender-questioning young people the time and space to make clear and informed decisions about their future, that has got to mean that people starting their talking therapy when they need it, not after years of delay. Following the Cass review, the Secretary of State announced that the NHS would be conducting clinical trials on the impact of puberty blockers. That is due to begin very soon. I would appreciate clarification from the Minister about the current status of the trials and the terms of reference under which they will be conducted. The announcement of the trial came alongside an indefinite ban on the prescription of puberty blockers as a treatment for young people with gender incongruence or dysphoria, unless they are part of that trial. Numerous organisations, including the Council of Europe, have raised concerns about the potential ethical implications of only offering a treatment to a small group of patients taking part in a clinical trial. I believe that the Secretary of State confirmed at the Dispatch Box that the trial would be uncapped when he gave a statement on puberty blockers to the House in December 2024. Would the Minister confirm whether that is the case? The ban has caused fear and anxiety for some young trans people and their families, who have been so badly let down for so many years. I have met with families in my own constituency who have highlighted the severe mental health impacts that uncertainty over treatment can have. It is crucial that any clinical decisions are made by expert clinicians based on the best possible evidence, not politicians with a point to make.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress. One of the main reasons those problems have not been rectified is successive delays from successive Governments. Shropshire is, again, a prime example. This is not related to the new hospital programme, but none the less, £312 million was granted for the hospital transformation programme in Shropshire back in 2018. Seven years later, while the country has been through five Prime Ministers and eight different Health Secretaries, Shropshire is still waiting for that transformation to take place. Opposition from both the Labour and Conservative councils that serve the area, along with the ridiculously lengthy process that capital expenditure has to go through to be signed off, means that desperately needed improvements have been horribly delayed as construction costs rise. As a result, the original plans have been scaled back and their value diminished.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  There have been successive failures in NHS management that all parties need to hold their hands up for—that is a fair point. We should, though, focus on the task in hand rather than continually going back decades, either to the coalition Government or to the Blair Government before that. That is not helpful to our constituents, who want a solution now.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  The hon. Member will be aware that there were not 40 new hospitals—they were not all hospitals and there were not 40 of them. The issue here is that the start dates for work on many hospitals that need urgent rebuilding have been pushed back into the 2030s, long beyond the life of this Parliament. The people who are served by those hospitals were promised new facilities and have not had them. That is devastating for those communities. If the Conservative approach was contemptible, Labour’s approach has been to procrastinate. The cost to the NHS of papering over the cracks and keeping hospitals running past their natural lifespan is enormous. That is why the Government must reverse the delay to the new hospital programme at once and urgently deliver the new hospitals that patients have long been promised.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I could not agree more. That is exactly the situation we saw in Shropshire. Once again, the people who will suffer are the patients. Last year, less than £900 million of the £13.8 billion required to eradicate the repair backlog for hospitals was invested—just 6.5%. It does not take an accountant to work out that at that rate, it will take 15 years to clear the current backlog, let alone the further deterioration of the crumbling buildings. Investment in eradicating the repair backlog fell sharply from £1.4 billion in 2021 to £895 million in 2023-24—a fall of 37%. I am afraid that, just like their approach to fixing social care, the Government’s continued lack of imagination and ambition is leaving our NHS less productive and less stable, which risks leaving millions languishing on NHS waiting lists.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  Multiple Government Members have made that point, but surely they can see that promising to build a hospital in a decade’s time when they may not be in power is a meaningless promise.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  It is important to recognise that the additional investment in the NHS amounts to about £10 billion a year—according to Office for Budget Responsibility numbers, which I am sure the hon. Gentleman has looked at—because of the cost of national insurance hikes and of compensating other public sector employers for those hikes. The £22 billion figure is somewhat misleading. The point that we are making is that it is a false economy to keep those buildings going, to keep repairing a crumbling estate, to keep patching up and putting a sticking plaster on those problems. Those buildings need to be demolished and rebuilt, so that approach is a false economy. It would be much better to build new buildings up front and save on future repair costs. We need to ensure that no one is treated in broken, uncomfortable and unsafe facilities. Repairing and replacing crumbling, substandard hospitals is not only vital for delivering better care and treating-more patients, but crucial for rebuilding the economy after years of Conservative economic vandalism. How much would all this cost? In my county of Shropshire, the cost of the maintenance backlog across all sites has reached about £75 million. I am sure that everyone here would agree that £75 million is a lot of money—indeed, it is so much that it is the total amount of Government capital investment for hospices this year—but in terms of hospital maintenance it is a drop in the ocean. Torbay hospital needs more than £50 million to clear the backlog, Watford hospital has a backlog of £63 million, and Hull royal infirmary requires an eye-watering £70 million. Across England, the figure is a colossal £13.8 billion—and that is just to bring our existing hospital estate to the minimum standard.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  Car parking is a real problem, particularly where public transport is poor—it plagues my constituents—and when it is unrealistically expensive for people who need to use hospital facilities. I thank the hon. Member for that point. The NHS crisis impacts on patient outcomes. My constituent Emma was left in the “fit to sit” area for 48 hours despite having been diagnosed with suspected sepsis, 96-year-old Mary waited outside in an ambulance for 11 hours, and 82-year-old Paula spent 24 hours on a trolley in a corridor. That is the reality in hospitals up and down the country. I think we all agree that that is a disgrace and it must be rectified.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I am pleased that the hon. Gentleman’s hospital is being dealt with, but I am sure that the residents of Torbay will not feel the benefit of that. I am slightly surprised that he thinks that the decade since the Liberal Democrats were in power has had no impact whatsoever. I did address the point that when a party comes into government and has to clear up the appalling mess left by the previous Government, there are difficult choices to be made. His party knows that. Labour Members, for example, have voted to retain the two-child benefit cap and keep a quarter of a million children in poverty—something that no one in my party has ever voted for. The last time I opened a Liberal Democrat Opposition day debate was in October, and the topic was primary care. I explained how the Government’s failure to invest in primary care was a false economy that increased pressures and costs in the critical parts of the system. The management of our hospital buildings displays that same false economy. Just as spending money on critical care instead of prevention and public health is a poor approach to managing a health service, waiting for the roof to collapse is an irresponsible way to manage NHS buildings. As problems are ignored and investment is poorly targeted, it is the patients and the hard-working staff striving to help them who are forced to suffer. This is not just about the new hospital programme. Across the country, there are thousands of GP surgeries that need urgent improvement if they are to provide the care that patients deserve. More than 2,000 hospital buildings across England were built before the foundation of the NHS in 1948, while the state of GP surgeries varies wildly. Many surgeries are simply no longer fit for purpose, having been built in the 1950s. Prescott surgery in my constituency, for example, has long been recognised as somewhere that needs to drastically increase in size because the population of the village has increased drastically itself. Despite the land and the community infrastructure levy funding being available, there is no sign of a new surgery being built. As the delay continues, the costs are rising and the challenge grows for both the council and the integrated care board, which are already under immense pressure to cut their costs. Instead of pursuing fantasies like the Conservatives or false economies like the Labour party, the Liberal Democrats would invest to save by starting construction now, and ending the epidemic of cancelled operations, closed-off wards and huge sums wasted on emergency repairs. That would save the taxpayer money in the long run and benefit patients much sooner.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I beg to move, That this House regrets the appalling state of repair of NHS hospitals across the country; notes that the NHS maintenance backlog rose to £13.8 billion in 2023-24; further notes the sustained pattern of cannibalising NHS capital budgets to keep day-to-day services running; condemns the previous Government’s record of starved repair budgets and exploding maintenance backlogs, which made sewage leaks, cracked walls, crumbling ceilings and sinking floors commonplace; further condemns the previous Government for launching the New Hospital Programme with no realistic plan to fund or deliver it; further regrets that almost half of the selected hospitals are now not set to begin construction until after 2030; calls on the Government to reverse the delay to the New Hospital Programme and create a crumbling hospitals taskforce to bring construction dates forward; and further calls on the Government to end the vicious cycle of false economies and rising repair backlogs by putting hospitals across the country on a path towards sustainable funding. The appalling state of our hospital buildings is a national scandal. Everybody in this country should be in control of their own lives and health, which means everybody getting the care they need when and where they need it, but that can never be realised while so many patients are treating in grossly inadequate settings. From Shropshire to Cornwall, Cambridgeshire, Watford and Devon, patients are losing their dignity because of decisions taken by the Conservatives, and the Labour Government’s failure to rectify them. The Conservatives’ record is one of starved repair budgets, serious leaks, crumbling ceilings and bucket-strewn wards. It is an outrage that millions of people are waiting for treatment, yet overcrowded hospitals have had to close operating theatres because they are no longer fit for use. Patients and hospital staff deserve the dignity of safe, modern and clean environments, but instead the previous Government shamefully chose to raid the repair budget to plug the gap in day-to-day costs, as our hospitals fell apart, and the new Government, who were elected on what increasingly looks like false hope, are pursuing a false economy in delaying the desperately needed new hospital programme. As with so much of their agenda, the Government promised so much but are delivering so little and betraying those who put their faith in the Labour party. Farmers who were fed up with the Tories taking them for granted have been hit with a tax grab on their families’ futures. Employers, who were promised growth and no new taxes, have been whacked with a national insurance increase. Patients, who were promised new hospitals, have had them taken away.

• 23 Apr 2025 · Hospitals · Hansard source

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  I will make some progress. At North Devon district hospital, the ducting of the ventilation system that serves the operating theatres has not been changed since it was installed in 1979, and cannot be replaced because of ceiling height and asbestos. As a result, all operating theatres have been non-compliant with NHS England buildings guidance since 2007. The good people of Devon clearly need a new hospital, and they were promised that they would have one by 2030, only for the Labour Government to take it away and decide that the change those people need will not be delivered for another decade. Even hospitals with comparatively few maintenance problems, such as the Royal Shrewsbury hospital, which serves my constituents and has a £35 million backlog, are clearly a long way short of being up to standard. I will not go into detail again about the catalogue of issues in Shropshire—the ambulance delays and station closures, the waiting times for check-ups, scans and surgeries, or the substandard state of cancer care—but they all combine to put huge pressure on hospitals, where staff and buildings are straining under the load.