Thank you to everyone who attended my Future of Health & Care discussion in Parliament with Haringey Councillor Lucia das Neves, the Cabinet Member for Health, Social Care, and Wellbeing and Karin Smyth MP, the Shadow Minister for Social Care.  A special thank you for Karin for stepping in at short notice on behalf of the Shadow Secretary of State for Health Wes Streeting MP.

My constituents shared their main concerns about our healthcare system; lack of access to primary care, healthcare for those with chronic conditions and adult social care. After 13 years of Tory austerity and the growing privatisation of the NHS, people are rightly worried about what happens if they have an accident, or if an elderly relative requires help with their care.

Karin, who has decades of experience working in the NHS, spoke about the need to improve our adult social care and primary care. I know that many constituents still struggle to get a GP appointment, meaning that illness can get worse and ultimately this puts more strain on hospitals and A&E wards. We know that patient satisfaction is the lowest on record whilst waiting times are the longest. The Tories want you to believe this is a pandemic issue but this is not true. By 2020, the UK had experienced a decade of Tory austerity and the NHS was overstretched, under resourced and going from one winter crisis to the next. Regional inequality was increasing whilst low productivity and poor health was spreading. After ten years of the Tory Government, our country was sicker and poorer.

During the pandemic, the Atlantic’s Tom McTague wrote a piece titled: “How the pandemic revealed Britain’s National Illness”, According to Tom: “When the pandemic hit, then, Britain was not the strong, successful, resilient country it imagined, but a poorly governed and fragile one. The truth is, Britain was sick before it caught the coronavirus.”

Tory sticking plasters are not good enough – we need strong reform and a long term strategy to save our NHS. According to the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP), 19,000 GPs are considering leaving the profession over the next five years, with many citing stress and long working hours. This will only get worse without significant Government action. The NHS is buckling under pressures that staff have been raising the alarm about for months and months. Where is the Government? Their absence during this crisis is shameful.

Labour has a plan, and I am pleased that we have set out a credible alternative: abolishing the outdated non-dom tax status to pay for one of the biggest expansions of the NHS workforce in history, recruiting 7,500 more doctors and 10,000 more nurses and midwives every year, doubling the number of district nurses, and providing 5,000 more health visitors. This is part of a ten-year plan for change and modernisation of the NHS, to deliver higher standards for patients, and a new model of care; ensuring fewer patients need to go to hospital, shifting resources to social care, GPs, care at home and mental health services, and reducing the cost of hospital care in the long-term. Karin was working in the NHS during the last Labour Government and spoke about the dramatic improvement she witnessed, thanks to Labour reform and better investment. We mustn’t be afraid of the word “reform” – the NHS needs investment but money must be spent efficiently.

I also believe we must have a holistic approach to healthcare, something echoed by Councillor Lucia. Lucia believes we must prioritise creating a healthier and happier population. This also means investing in our mental health services and ensuring that healthcare settings are safe. This week, the women and equalities committee published a damning report concluding that Ministers have failed to tackle “appalling” and “glaring” racial disparities in maternal health despite repeated promises. Councils have a clear role to play ensuring that everyone has access to healthcare, but this is underpinned by funding by the Government. Lucia also highlighted the disparity of healthcare for refugees, who are often left in hotels without access to GPs, mental health support and healthy food. I’m grateful for the work of the local community and charities, who continue to help refugees in Haringey and provide life-saving help and guidance. What’s more, due to the Government’s Hostile Environment, many refugees and people with unsettled status are not seeking healthcare because they are terrified of being reported to the Home Office.

Throughout my parliamentary career, I have fought to protect our NHS. The NHS is our greatest institution, established more than 70 years ago by a Labour Government to provide universal healthcare free at the point of use.  I will always fight for it to uphold its founding principles as a comprehensive, integrated and public NHS that is there for all of us when we need it. Due to a lack of long-term planning and investment, hospital departments are overstretched, staff are leaving in droves and patients are suffering. I believe that Labour does have a concrete plan to modernise the NHS as well as commit to the biggest expansion of its workforce in history – the last Labour government reduced waiting times from 18 months to 18 weeks and I know we can do this again.