Covid: Fifth Anniversary

Martin Rhodes Excerpts

Thursday 12th June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Martin Rhodes (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

I commend my hon. Friend the Member for West Ham and Beckton (James Asser) for securing this debate. The covid-19 pandemic had a global reach, yet the impact was not felt equally. On a local level, the pandemic had a disproportionate impact on some of the most vulnerable in society. The elderly, those with pre-existing conditions and people living in the most deprived areas saw some of the highest fatality rates. The covid-19 pandemic in the UK and globally displayed for all to see—or all who cared to see—the damning consequences of societal and economic inequalities.

Globally, covid-19 is estimated to have directly caused 7 million deaths and many millions more indirectly. The global response was unequal and unjust, with many countries starved of essential vaccines, tests and treatments. Though some spoke of covid-19 as being a once-in-a-lifetime event, that is not necessarily true. A key way of honouring those who died, those who were left bereaved and those who suffered in so many ways is to focus on having a plan for the next pandemic. Studies suggest that outbreaks caused by diseases moving from animals to people are happening more often and with greater impact. That said, there are reasons for hope in that area.

A number of initiatives and projects are working to ensure that the next outbreak does not catch us unprepared. One example is the 100 Days Mission, which is a global initiative that aims to have safe, effective and accessible vaccines, tests and treatments within 100 days of the next pandemic. It is estimated that had the world deployed vaccines, tests and treatments within 100 days for covid, rather than within 300 days, we could have prevented 8.3 million excess deaths and avoided trillions in economic losses.

It is welcome that the UK Government continue to support that mission and more general global health research and development. Research in that area and in so many others is so important. We live in an age where some decry experts. I suggest that we need more expertise, research and science, not less.

We need to remember those who suffered and those who died, and we need to mark that by a commitment to ensure that we are better placed than ever before for any such eventuality in the future.

Dementia Care

Martin Rhodes Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dr Beccy Cooper (Worthing West) (Lab)]

I thank the hon. Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for bringing this important debate to the House this afternoon. I also thank other Members for sharing such personal testimonies; as well as bringing broader context, it really adds value to what this House brings to our national conversation.

As a public health consultant, it would be remiss of me not to spend a couple of minutes talking about how to reduce the risk of dementia before getting on to dementia care, as only about a third of UK adults think it is actually possible to reduce their risk of dementia. I am sure these recommendations will all be familiar to everybody listening. As healthcare professionals and as politicians, we should encourage people of all ages and stages of life, and in particular middle-aged adults, to be more physically active, eat healthily and maintain a healthy weight, drink less alcohol, stop smoking—very apt at the moment—and be socially active.

Many Members have spoken today about being socially active, and socially isolated older adults are nearly twice as likely to develop dementia within 15 years. Further recommendations include controlling diabetes and high blood pressure. If that sounds familiar, it is because we talk about that in the cardiovascular realm, too. We should be communicating loudly that what is good for the heart is good for reducing the risk of dementia.

Let me move on to dementia care. I want to talk a little bit about what we are doing in Worthing West, which relates to a lot of what has been said already, and then I shall conclude with the national picture. In Worthing West we have 2,361 people currently living with the condition. The charity Guild Care is a not-for-profit care service for older people, people with dementia, and children and adults with learning difficulties. It provides care for 120 people with dementia in their own homes and for a further 100 in its respite service. It is great that we have heard so much about respite services in this debate today. It is so important to help people with dementia access support, care and activities that provide a healthy way of living. People visiting dementia day services experience stronger social ties, have better mental health, require fewer GP visits, use less medication, sleep better—something that we all need to do—and have more active engaged minds.

We also know that respite is vital because behind each diagnosis, as we have heard today, often stands an unpaid carer whose career and life are put on hold while their own health quietly deteriorates, as stress, sleep loss and isolation take their toll. Inevitably, in that situation, we see dementia rates rising. Recognising and investing in the value of respite has huge benefits.

We have also heard about some innovative community care hubs across the country. Guild Care in Worthing West is developing its own community hub to combat social isolation. It provides integrated dementia care, diagnosis, support and a rich programme of activities that keep people healthy and living at home. That is an aspiration that we want for all of us—to live well and to stay at home for as long as possible. Our role in Government is to ensure a more co-ordinated system, building on best practice models, such as those that we have heard about today, including that of Guild Care in Worthing West.

We have also touched on training. Guild Care delivers in-house specialist dementia training to its staff in a bespoke programme that it developed with colleagues in the Bromley dementia hub—so I give a shout-out for Bromley there. Good research-based staff training is essential to help care professionals to deliver compassionate, person-centred support, as so many hon. Members have said today. It is the bedrock of quality care.

[Martin Rhodes (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

My hon. Friend mentioned person-centred care in dementia. Does she agree that initiatives such as Playlist for Life in my constituency, which uses meaningful music to reconnect people with dementia to their memories and their identity, should be more widely supported across the NHS?

[Dr Cooper]

What an outstanding service that sounds. I know there is a creative mental health all-party parliamentary group taking place today. We underestimate the benefits of exposure to the creative arts for all of us, specifically for those with dementia. My hon. Friend is absolutely right and I thank him for raising that. Clearly, training is essential, as are the creative arts.

To conclude, I wish to talk about what this all means nationally, and specifically about the implementation of a national social care service, which I know the Minister is very well aware of. I acknowledge that the Casey Commission is a vital step towards implementing that service. The Darzi report and our recent work in the Health and Social Care Committee, some members of whom are here this afternoon, underline what we all know, which is that we cannot fix the NHS without fixing the broken social care system. The two are fundamentally interconnected; we must not look at health and social care issues in isolation, and that includes dementia. We must ensure that strategic plans build better integration and recognise that investment in social care is essential. It is essential to improve people’s lives. Moving from treatment to prevention of illness is pivotal to the NHS 10-year strategy and to reducing the spiralling costs to the NHS of an ageing population.

Let me conclude now with this idea of changing the narrative. This has been touched on this afternoon. Sometimes we think about dementia as an illness that has no hope. One Member has already said that 50% of us may well develop dementia in our lifetimes. One way or another, the illness has touched pretty much everyone in this Chamber. Care Talk recently published a comprehensive report on dementia, which is well worth reading. I would like to urge everyone to take up this new narrative on dementia. The traditional narrative surrounding dementia focuses on decline and inevitability, but, as I have already mentioned, around 40% of dementia cases might be attributable to risk factors that can be modified. A 20% reduction in the risk factors per decade could reduce UK prevalence by 16%—even by this year.

I am advocating for policies that help people live well and protect them from illnesses including dementia, and for services that help people to live well with dementia, by emphasising their strengths, which many personal testimonies have already touched on. We must also be supporting people and their families to better navigate the condition and contribute to their communities and our society.

Rare Cancers Bill

Martin Rhodes Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 14th March 2025 Commons Chamber

[Martin Rhodes (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

We have already heard so much moving and powerful testimony in this debate, but despite the tragic impact that rare cancers have on people across the UK, they garner too little attention, are under-researched and lack investment in their treatment. Though cancer survival rates rose by nearly 10% between 2005 and 2020, rare cancers still have some of the lowest survival rates, leaving too many people without hope.

I thank the hon. Member for Edinburgh South West (Dr Arthur) for introducing this Bill. I will argue in favour of it today, using three examples: first, the story of a constituent suffering from a rare cancer; secondly, the importance of this Bill for extremely rare cancers; and, lastly, its importance for future research.

There are many rare forms of cancer that individuals suffer, often without specialised treatments or public awareness, but every rare cancer patient has a name and a story. Take that of a constituent I recently met in Parliament at an event for World Cancer Day, who suffers from T-cell large granular lymphocytic leukaemia. Although the five-year survival rate for leukaemia currently stands at 55%, the figure for acute myeloid leukaemia, a rare and aggressive form, is one of the lowest of all cancers. It has a 22% survival rate beyond five years after diagnosis. This means that, sadly, nearly 80% of those diagnosed with AML today will not survive until the end of this Parliament. Surgery is not a viable treatment option for those diagnosed with leukaemia, so such patients often depend on the discovery of new and innovative treatments to survive the disease.

Though every cancer has a name and a story, some are so rare that there is little representation of them, even in debates like this. That brings me to my second example: composite hemangioendothelioma, or CHE. It was first medically identified in only 2006, and by 2022 had fewer than 60 cases reported in English-language literature. Because of its rarity, it is hard to treat and garners little attention from companies that could develop treatments. However, those affected by CHE have names, families and stories. Hopefully, my mentioning CHE in this debate may, in a small way, help raise awareness of its existence. This Bill will assist us in this matter, as it will result in the appointment of a named person who is responsible for overseeing the delivery of research into rare cancer treatments. That will facilitate some political accountability for rare cancer research and encourage an ecosystem that can hopefully lead to future treatments for, or at least more attention to, even some of the rarest cancers, such as CHE.

Talking of treatments, earlier this week, I met a constituent who is a researcher at the University of Glasgow. She was in Parliament for the STEM for Britain exhibition. We discussed her research on a novel approach to treating osteosarcoma. Although it is the most common primary bone cancer, only 160 people are diagnosed with osteosarcoma each year in the UK—fewer than three people in every 1 million of the population—making it a rare cancer under the Bill. Current treatments lack specificity in targeting the tumour and often have unwanted side effects. My constituent’s research looked at the potential use of small molecules to create a more effective and non-invasive treatment for osteosarcoma. The Bill’s support for information sharing in the research registry system will help researchers like my constituent. It will help with research and clinical trials by giving researchers greater access to the patient population with rare cancers like osteosarcoma. A patient survey in 2024 found that 82% of those with a rare or less common cancer were not offered a clinical trial. That is why the Bill is important.

The Bill will help to foster an environment in which there can be more research and clinical trials on rare cancers such as osteosarcoma. For patients like my constituent suffering from t-cell large granular lymphocytic leukaemia, for those diagnosed with the least-understood cancers, and for the researchers trying to find new treatments, the Bill represents a commitment to the fight against rare cancers. I therefore urge the House to support my hon. Friend the Member for Edinburgh South West and the Bill today.

Oral Answers to Questions

Martin Rhodes Excerpts

Tuesday 7th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Martin Rhodes (Glasgow North) (Lab)]

12. What discussions he has had with Cabinet colleagues on staff salaries in the care sector.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Wes Streeting)]

This Government recognise the crisis in social care that we inherited, which is why over the past six months we have taken steps through the Budget to increase investment in social care, deliver the biggest expansion of the carer’s allowance since the 1970s and invest in the disabled facilities grant. Of course, as my hon. Friend alludes to, we cannot deliver great social care without the workers who deliver it. That is why I am proud that within our first 100 days, the care worker-turned-Deputy Prime Minister included fair pay agreements in her landmark Employment Rights Bill, so we can give our care staff not just the pay they deserve, but the professional status, recognising the hard work they do as care professionals. That is a crucial step on our path to building a national care service.

[Martin Rhodes]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the SNP’s National Care Service (Scotland) Bill was a missed opportunity to improve pay and conditions for social care workers, particularly when compared with Labour’s Employment Rights Bill, which creates the fair pay agreement for social care workers?

[Wes Streeting]

I agree with my hon. Friend. I am proud that this Government have taken quick action within our first 100 days. Thanks to the Employment Rights Bill, which is UK-wide legislation, this Labour Government in Westminster are giving the Scottish Government the tools they need to do the job of establishing fair pay for care staff. If they do not do it, Anas Sarwar and Jackie Baillie will.