Department of Health and Social Care

Ben Coleman Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Ben Coleman (Chelsea and Fulham) (Lab)]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Birmingham Erdington (Paulette Hamilton) for her excellent speech and for securing the debate.

I am quite excited about Saturday week, not just because it will be my birthday on 5 July—[Hon. Members: “Hear, hear.”] Thank you so much—but because the national health service will be 77. Yes, it has survived that long. [Interruption.] I have survived slightly less long, I would like the House to think. Despite the years of cuts and chaos which have left the NHS broken, it is not beaten and we are rebuilding it. There is a huge amount to do, but we are making progress. After record funding in our first Budget, I am delighted that the spending review has put the health of our nation first. And, as touched on by colleagues, I am equally delighted that the Government are determined to reform how the NHS works to get a bigger bang for our buck and better outcomes for patients, because we need that.

We know we have masses to do. My hon. Friend set out many of the splendid things we have done so far, including getting waiting lists down to their lowest for two years, which is quite an achievement after only 11 months of this Government. On a more personal level, I am delighted that my constituency is benefiting directly from having a Labour Government. Charing Cross hospital has been given millions of pounds extra to upgrade vital infrastructure, including new MRI scanners, modernised operating theatres, better energy security and a big refurbishment of the ground and first floors, all under this Government. I also hugely welcome the new investment in GPs in my patch: the Cassidy medical centre, Ashville surgery, Palace surgery in Fulham and the Chelsea practice have all been earmarked for new funding under the Government to improve facilities and help provide better care.

Finally, I am excited by the possibilities of the new neighbourhood health service, which we are looking forward to in the 10-year health plan. Locally, I look forward to playing my full part in bringing together all the local health and social care practitioners, so that my residents get the better healthcare they have been waiting so long for and deserve. While I do that, I will also be working to ensure that we confront health inequalities and end the situation that we have now where people get less good access to health, less good treatment and less good outcomes simply because of their colour, what they earn or their disabilities. We must end that.

The spending review continues the work we have begun of repairing a health system that has been left bruised and battered, down but not out. Combined with the 10-year plan, we will be putting the nation’s health on a better path for the future and creating the change that people so vigorously voted for.