Defending Public Services

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Monday 23rd May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Heidi Alexander]

My hon. Friend makes a good point, and motivated staff are essential to providing high-quality care.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Under the last Labour Government, new medical schools were set up—including Hull York medical school—to train the additional doctors that we knew the NHS needed. The Queen’s Speech is a missed opportunity because there is no announcement about increasing capacity in those new medical schools that Labour brought in.

[Heidi Alexander]

My hon. Friend is, as always, entirely right.

The Government have run out of answers and they have run out of people to blame. Whichever way we look at it—funding, quality of care or staffing—theirs is a record of failure. That will be the Health Secretary’s legacy. He rightly said “Never again” to Mid Staffs, but his time in office has been marked by tragedy and failure at Southern Health. He talks about patient safety, but his actions have made the NHS less safe.

The Government have failed patients and staff. They have proved the old saying true: we simply cannot trust the Tories with the NHS.