Oral Answers to Questions

Karin Smyth Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Gareth Thomas (Harrow West) (Lab/Co-op)]

3. What steps he is taking to improve cancer services in north-west London.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

Thanks to our investment and modernisation of the NHS, the Government are putting cancer services on the road to recovery by opening up community diagnostic centres on evenings and weekends, building new surgical hubs and investing in new radiotherapy machines. We are diagnosing cancer faster and treating it sooner. This year, an extra 193,000 patients received a timely diagnosis or the all-clear compared with the previous year. I am pleased to report that cancer services in north-west London rank among the best performing in England, and we are committed to further improvement.

[Gareth Thomas]

Northwick Park hospital is the acute hospital serving my constituents. It benefits from having excellent cancer clinicians. They are determined to go ever further to improve the speed of diagnosis and the quality of support for those diagnosed with cancer, and are developing plans for a cancer centre for the hospital. As part of the roll-out of the national cancer plan, would my hon. Friend be willing to visit and meet those clinicians, and perhaps bring the Secretary of State’s chequebook with her?

[Karin Smyth]

As my kids would say, that is a bit boomer, but I take the point. My hon. Friend is a tireless campaigner for Northwick Park and his constituents, and he has long campaigned for the improvement of cancer services. Any reconfiguration or change to services needs to be clinically led by local decision makers, following engagement with patients and stakeholders. I am sure that the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), who is developing the cancer plan, would be happy to meet him to discuss services in his constituency.

[Mr Gagan Mohindra (South West Hertfordshire) (Con)]

Mount Vernon hospital is a cancer specialist hospital in north-west London. Following the recent closure of the Mount Vernon urgent care centre and the delay to the new Watford general hospital until at least 2032, both of which I have previously raised in the Chamber, uncertainty regarding the future of Hemel Hempstead hospital now looks set to further restrict access to vital healthcare services for my constituents. What steps is the Minister taking to ensure that my constituents receive the adequate access to healthcare that they deserve?

[Mr Mohindra]

Mount Vernon is next door.

[Karin Smyth]

This question is about services across north-west London. We are working with all integrated care boards to ensure that they work with local Members of Parliament about service configuration. It is a matter for them to determine. I have spoken to the hon. Gentleman previously. We are determined to ensure that we have the best services for people in their local areas based on clinical need. Today I have been talking about neighbourhood health services, for example. As we develop the health service plan and put right the mistakes of the past in getting the new hospital programme on to a sustainable footing, all of this will be considered in the round. I am happy to keep talking with him.

[Elaine Stewart (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab)]

5. What steps his Department is taking to reduce the number of people waiting for NHS treatment.

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[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

We inherited a crumbling NHS estate. Many hospitals, including Doncaster Royal infirmary, are in a state of disrepair, thanks to the shocking record of the last 14 years. When I visited Doncaster Royal, I saw at first hand the outstanding care staff are providing despite significant infrastructure challenges. That is why the Government have supported Doncaster and Bassetlaw trust with £19.8 million in national funding to redevelop the critical care unit, and another £3.2 million from the estate safety fund for fire safety work. We have also provided nine years of certainty for maintenance budgets, allowing trusts to plan strategically and deliver further improvements.

[Sally Jameson]

As the Minister outlined, Doncaster was badly let down under the previous Administration, when after much fanfare and promise we were left off the new hospital programme. Since then, the trust has been working on revised capital projects to keep it going in the interim period, including a much-needed rebuild of the east block. Will the Minister continue to work with me and the trust to deal with the critical state of DRI?

[Karin Smyth]

My hon. Friend has been the most tireless campaigner on this issue since coming to the House in July 2024, so of course I will continue to work with her to support her local hospital. The previous Government neglected the NHS: those buildings were left to crumble and their new hospital programme was neither affordable nor deliverable. We are committed to reversing that decline and repairing hospitals like Doncaster Royal infirmary. That is why the trust will receive over £105 million in operational capital across the next four years to be allocated to local priorities, including repairs at Doncaster Royal infirmary.

[Dr Neil Hudson (Epping Forest) (Con)]

7. What assessment he has made of the potential impact of the time taken to deliver the new hospital programme on maintenance costs across the NHS estate.

[Clive Jones (Wokingham) (LD)]

22. What progress his Department has made on the implementation of the new hospital programme.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

In January we published an honest, realistic and deliverable plan that puts the programme on a sustainable footing, ensuring that taxpayers get the maximum value for money. We are committed to delivering all the schemes and are moving at pace, with funding in place for design work, construction and business case development. Outside the new hospital programme, we are investing £30 billion in day-to-day maintenance repairs of the NHS estate across this spending review period.

[Dr Hudson]

As my constituency neighbour, the Health Secretary will know that both his constituents and mine rely heavily on the Princess Alexandra hospital in Harlow and Whipps Cross in Leytonstone. Before the election, he promised the rebuild of the Princess Alexandra hospital and he supported the Whipps Won’t Wait campaign, yet under Labour it appears that both Princess Alexandra and Whipps must wait. Whipps Cross now faces an estimated £170 million in backlog maintenance, one of the highest figures in the country. Does the Health Secretary agree with me that rising maintenance costs must be taken into account when prioritising the new hospital programme?

[Karin Smyth]

Again, what the hon. Gentleman says is really quite astonishing: like everybody else, he knows that no money was allocated by his Government to the new hospital programme beyond last March. The Conservatives know that and they need to start being honest with their constituents—[Interruption.]

[Mr Speaker]

Order. Dr Mullan, I want you to set a better example—I expect better from you.

[Karin Smyth]

I think that the Conservatives’ constituents know exactly what their promises were built on: sand. That is why there are very few Conservative Members in the House and a lot of Members on the Labour Benches. We took hold of the programme and put it on a sustainable and credible footing, and we will deliver it.

[Clive Jones]

Frimley Park hospital is in wave 1 of the new hospital programme, with construction expected to start in 2028-29. Many of my constituents use the hospital, and they are rightly concerned about possible delays to its build, especially with the issue of reinforced autoclaved aerated concrete. Patients and staff cannot be expected to work in an unsafe environment longer than necessary, if at all. Will the Minister reassure my constituents and confirm that the construction on Frimley Park hospital will begin no later than 2029?

[Karin Smyth]

The hon. Gentleman is an assiduous campaigner on behalf of Royal Berkshire hospital and now of Frimley Park hospital. I met with Members of Parliament last week who are involved in the RAAC schemes, which are progressing to plan. We are absolutely on target with progressing that plan, and we look forward to the proposals coming through from the local integrated care board.

[Maya Ellis (Ribble Valley) (Lab)]

My constituents in Ribble Valley have been directly impacted by the delays to the new hospital programme, with the rebuilding of Royal Preston hospital being put back by almost a decade. Just last week, I received the disappointing news that Longridge community hospital, which is much loved and valued by local residents, will be closed for safety upgrades for the next six months. This Government’s impressive 10-year health plan rightly notes that they expect a shift from hospital to community. With that in mind, can the Minister confirm that she expects integrated care boards, such as Lancashire and South Cumbria ICB, to keep community hospitals open? That is opposed to centralising, which not only takes services away from communities but, in our case, transfers them to vastly inferior hospital buildings. Will she join with me and Longridge residents and say that she hopes the essential repairs are completed quickly at the community hospital?

[Karin Smyth]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on getting a lot of estates questions into that one point. The point is that local people value the local facilities that they have known for a very long time. That is why we are committed to reversing the decline in capital investment under the last Government—Lord Darzi outlined the shocking £40 billion black hole on capital. Part of our move towards neighbourhood health services is exactly about getting services closer to people’s homes, and we look forward to having further conversations with my hon. Friend and her constituents.

[Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab)]

Rowan View mental health hospital at Maghull health park in my constituency is benefiting from lower costs from the installation of solar panels from GB Energy. May I encourage the Minister to support Maghull health park’s bid for an innovation and research facility so that we can address the Government’s priority of giving parity of esteem to mental health and physical health?

[Karin Smyth]

My hon. Friend makes an excellent point about working across Government with GB Energy to support local health systems in reducing health costs. That is an important part of our efficiency drive. He is a strong advocate for a local facility at Maghull, and we are absolutely committed to working with the ICB so that it develops the most efficient services where people are actually located, rather than expecting them to go to and fro and get bounced around the health system. I hope he can see further progress on that issue.

[Mr Speaker]

I call the shadow Minister.

[Dr Luke Evans (Hinckley and Bosworth) (Con)]

When it comes to hospital provision, the Conservatives believe that we should continue to use private providers to improve access and reduce waiting times. We believe the Government should not let spare capacity go to waste on ideological grounds; we should continue to make use of private-sector capacity to treat NHS patients where available. Does the Minister agree?

[Karin Smyth]

I am sure this is leading somewhere else but, broadly, yes, I think I do.

[Dr Evans]

I am pleased to hear that the Minister does, given that it is her current policy. The last time the Government brought in private finance, they brought in the private finance initiative, which brought in £13 billion of investment. The problem was that it cost the taxpayer a whopping £80 billion, and hospitals are still paying decades on. This time around, will the Government give a cast-iron guarantee and complete confidence to the public that this is not Labour’s version of PFI mark 2?

[Karin Smyth]

Yes, I can give the hon. Gentleman that guarantee. The last Government could have learned the lessons of some of the PFI schemes that were very costly and did not run. Why did they not learn those lessons? Why did they not take action to reverse some of the decline? Why did they not take control of the system and do something about it? We have learned the lessons from those schemes, thanks in part to the great work done by parliamentarians on Committees such as the Public Accounts Committee. The new system to build the new neighbourhood health centres, which are fundamental to our drive to shift care out of hospital, will be different and will be publicly owned; they will revert to the public. The schemes are fundamentally different, and I am very happy to talk about it in more detail.

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[Mr Connor Rand (Altrincham and Sale West) (Lab)]

14. What steps his Department is taking to improve cancer care.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

We are committed to transforming cancer care, having already invested £70 million in new radiotherapy machines to help patients to be treated more quickly. We are investing £26 million in the NHS, opening community diagnostic centres in the evening and at weekends to catch cancer early, and our national cancer plan will have patients at its heart—from referral to diagnosis, treatment and ongoing care.

[Mr Rand]

My constituent Mike lost his wife to cancer, but as well as battling the physical symptoms, she faced devastating mental health effects, becoming deeply depressed after her terminal diagnosis. Despite that, she never received appropriate mental health support, and this significant issue for cancer patients should be addressed as part of our welcome reforms to palliative care. Could the relevant Minister meet me and Mike to discuss his campaign to improve mental health support for those with a terminal diagnosis?

[Karin Smyth]

Of course, I am sorry to hear about the loss of my hon. Friend’s constituent’s wife, and our thoughts are with him and his family. My hon. Friend raises an excellent point, and we are supporting people with cancer who are experiencing poor mental health care by expanding access to psychological therapies through NHS talking therapies. I am sure that the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), will be happy to talk to him as she develops her cancer plan to ensure that these issues are incorporated.

[Dame Caroline Dinenage (Gosport) (Con)]

A constituent of mine recently had successful high-intensity focused ultrasound treatment for prostate cancer, which was at Charing Cross hospital because it is not even offered to men at Portsmouth hospitals, despite being a less invasive treatment with fewer long-term health implications. As if to underline that inequality, imagine his surprise when he turned up at the hospital and found that the same doctor who had diagnosed him in Portsmouth was actually carrying out the procedure in London. What more are the Government doing to ensure that there is no postcode lottery when it comes to HIFU, and what will the Minister do to ensure that more men can access it?

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

I thank the hon. Lady for that question and for her work on this issue. She makes a really important point about consistency of care. We understand that services are different in different parts of the country—sometimes the needs are different—but we want to ensure that, where there is good practice and proven evidence, care is rolled out. As we say, bring the best of the NHS to the rest of the NHS. I am sure that the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for West Lancashire (Ashley Dalton), will take note of that point.

[Sarah Olney (Richmond Park) (LD)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.