NHS (Public Satisfaction)

Jack Dromey Excerpts

Wednesday 30th March 2011 Westminster Hall

[Jack Dromey (Birmingham, Erdington) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Bayley. Unaccustomed as I am to being brief, the national health service is the jewel in the crown of public service provision. It was one of the greatest achievements of the post-war Labour Government. It has served this country well for two generations and, as with the hon. Member for Blaydon (Mr Anderson), my mother was a nurse who came from County Tipperary to train in a hospital here in London.

The national health service was on its knees in 1997, and was proudly rebuilt by a Labour Government. I see the benefits of that in my constituency and Birmingham as a whole in the magnificent Queen Elizabeth hospital, the health centres such as that in Stockland Green, and the walk-in centres such as those in Kingstanding and Erdington high street. They are served by outstanding staff whom I cannot praise too highly. They range from Erdington consortium of 17 doctors who are deeply committed to the NHS—my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon is right—staff at all levels of the NHS who are a credit to this country

The problem is the Government’s two fundamental broken promises. They promised to protect spending on the NHS, but in fact there will be real-terms decreases in 143 of the 151 primary care trusts this year. The Government promised no more top-down reorganisation. Instead, they have embarked on the most radical and reckless reorganisation possible, which will have serious consequences for the NHS, and will inevitably see the national taken out of the national health service. The Government should think again about their friendless proposals, and I welcome the expressions of concern from both sides of the Chamber about the ill-thought-out, deeply damaging proposals.

It is not just the NHS that will suffer. So too will some of the most vulnerable groups in our society. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Blaydon, I have been a strong supporter of the muscular dystrophy campaign, one of many organisations which has pointed out that, at the moment, because of economies of scale organised through PCTs, we can count on specialist services that those who suffer from this dreadful wasting disease and their families badly need. It asks what will happen in future if we move to GP consortia and a complete change in the nature of the national health service. It believes that it is being let down by the Government, who are making a fundamental mistake, and I hope that they will think again.