Uckfield Community Hospital Surgical Unit

Mims Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

I call my constituency neighbour, Mims Davies.

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

I start by thanking, through you, Madam Deputy Speaker, Mr Speaker for granting me this Adjournment debate. I know that it is unusual to allocate Adjournment debates to members of the shadow Cabinet, so I am grateful. I am delighted to be raising this important matter on behalf of my constituents. I appreciate it, and I hope that you, Madam Deputy Speaker, as my constituency neighbour, will appreciate it too.

Since July 2024, Uckfield community hospital has been entrusted to me as part of my changed constituency. It is one of two small but vital community hospitals in my area, the other being the award-winning Queen Victoria hospital in East Grinstead, which is going from strength to strength. We look forward to the completion of the community diagnostic centre in 2026. It is a buzzing, specialist community facility with great ratings and a vibrantly bright future. I thank all NHS staff in the various hospitals that cover my area, and the wider frontline staff who are there for us in times of need. As we approach the festive season, we are especially grateful to them.

So why do we have what feels like a fragile moment for the Uckfield community hospital? It has the same caring NHS staff and high ratings, but services have been taken from the site, including the formal site manager. Those removals give a sense of great unease. I will give a little history of the site, which, Madam Deputy Speaker, you will already know. A local benefactor back in the 1980s—Mr Arthur Hughes, a generous local farmer—gave the land and £1 million. The League of Friends then raised a further £1 million, which was matched by the NHS, for the people of Uckfield and the surrounding villages to see the facility delivered. The hospital was officially opened in 1993 by Her Royal Highness Princess Margaret. The bequest has the vital inclusion of an operating theatre. This can be found in the associated covenants, and it was especially for the small surgical aspects of local day care.

I have visited this fairly new, fresh-feeling, beautifully set and well-maintained community hospital on several occasions, and the welcome has always been warm and caring—local NHS staff taking great pride in their roles to support and administer to the local community. The League of Friends has long played an active part, and frankly a huge financial part, and has been a practical supporter of Uckfield hospital and the resident trust over the past years. Two examples recently include funding X-ray equipment to the tune of £186,000, and ultrasound machines at £60,000. It has not only supported the hospital, but offered extra funding to local GP surgeries, as it is the League of Friends’ philosophy that such funding benefits all local people.

The League of Friends has delivered plans to help upgrade the busy minor injuries unit on site. However, with the surgical unit now mothballed—in reality, it feels like it is closing—the uncertainty is just too much for the Friends. That is reflected in the emails that I have received in the past few weeks and months—even today, ahead of this debate. Local people are worried about the site. I hope that their fears will be allayed tonight.

The wonderful Linda Kenwood, the secretary of the League of Friends, has said poignantly:

“To be treated in this way is very upsetting.”

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Lady for bringing forward this debate. I spoke to her beforehand, and I share her concerns. We have similar concerns in my constituency, where the minor injuries unit closed. The unit was crucial for constituents, and its closure meant that they had to travel further—for almost an hour—to get to the nearest urgent care centre. Does the hon. Lady agree that any future decisions on any unit across this nation should be grounded in the needs of patients, the benefits of local access and the essential role that community hospitals play in delivering a resilient NHS?

[Mims Davies]

It is a pleasure to receive an intervention from the hon. Gentleman in an Adjournment debate, and I completely agree. That is exactly what tonight’s debate is about, and I thank him for adding to it.

Without a dedicated Uckfield hospital manager to pull it all together, the site has become fragmented—that is the feedback that I receive continually. I have repeatedly heard that none of the individual trusts seems to interact for the wider good of the hospital site and its patients. I have previously written to the Secretary of State for Health on this matter, as I am concerned that if any fire or substantial incident was found at the site, who ultimately would be responsible for the site as a whole and for ensuring health and safety for all?

Let me take you back, Madam Deputy Speaker. I visited the hospital on 4 October 2024 to meet Danielle Gearing, a staff nurse, to see for myself the services offered at the hospital and to find out what was actually happening on behalf of my constituents. Along with the minor injuries unit, there was a full and varied range of out-patient clinics, including oncology, rheumatology, chemical pathology, dermatology, vascular, oral and maxillofacial and neurology, to name a few. Most of these clinics did include the consultant, registrar and quite often a clinical nurse specialist.

Yet that list does not include the other service providers and facilities on the site, such as the health visiting team, diabetes nurses, diabetic eye screening, heart failure nurses, dietitians, cardiac rehab, Parkinson’s nurses and MS nurses. Macmillan is there. Bowel screening is there. There is hospice outreach and the AAA clinic—providing abdominal aortic aneurysm screening—and the list at Uckfield community hospital goes on.

Danielle confirmed that it is a very busy out-patient department, which we hope will continue. We should not forget that at that point the hospital also had a GP surgery, a pharmacy and a mental health facility on the site. The ambulance service also runs a site close to this facility, as you will know, Madam Deputy Speaker. I will say more on the pharmacy situation shortly.

Out of the blue, in August 2024, the League of Friends received the following in a letter from Dr James Evans, a consultant in critical care and anaesthetics and medical examiner at East Sussex Healthcare NHS trust:

“I am writing to yourselves as a Consultant within East Sussex Healthcare Trust, and Deputy Divisional director of DAS, and as a Clinical Lead for Day Surgery.

I am hoping you will be able to help, and would be grateful if you could take some time to consider this email.

One of my roles is Clinical Lead responsible for the newly built Sussex Surgical Centre (SSC), which is looking to be functional in March 2025. This will be a surgical Hub aiming to improve day case surgery provision across the whole region and hopefully benefiting patients and staff in East Sussex.

Part of my role is related to equipment for the SSC, both ensuring we have the right stuff in place, and sourcing any essential items within a tight budget. Whilst engaged in this task, I have been made aware of some equipment within Uckfield Hospital that was kindly purchased by yourselves over the years. Some of this equipment is expensive and specialist, and extremely useful for the surgeons and whole…surgery team.

I know that equipment purchased by The Friends is intended for use solely within their Hospital, but I was hoping you may be able to consider making an exception at this time.

All of the equipment you have purchased (including a microscope, ultrasound machine and ECG machine) are incredibly expensive, but vital for the successful running of a DSU, and we are struggling within the constraints of our budget to purchase all of the equipment. As you know, the trust is in a dire financial position, and any help would be greatly appreciated.

The items in Uckfield would go a long way to facilitating the above and would be used on a daily basis within the SSC.

I am aware that I am asking a great deal from yourselves at this time but wonder if you may be open to further discussion on the subject.”

This, Madam Deputy Speaker, is literally taking the family jewels in plain sight. Chris Macve, chairman of the League of Friends of Uckfield community hospital, said of their concerns about the possible removal of services from our day surgery unit that they “as yet have had no official communication from East Sussex healthcare NHS trust.” There are still various unhelpful rumours and deep concerns about what was received in this letter from James Evans, and frankly there is still no clarity for the staff, the Friends and my constituents—and your constituents, Madam Deputy Speaker. For clarity, the Friends have said—this is what they know—that they “have not been told that this unit is fully closing, but you can understand our disbelief at the insensitivity and the lack of respect at receiving the news in this way. We have a perfectly good operating theatre at Uckfield, fully equipped and staffed, just sitting there doing virtually nothing.”

After a number of rumours increased on 7 October 2024, the hospital staff in the surgical day unit were told unofficially that the integrated care board had agreed to a six-month closure and that they should expect a meeting at the end of October or early November in 2024. As Members can imagine, this was a real shock and morale took a massive tumble. The pilot—the mothballing—began on 2 December 2024, just before Christmas last year, and I brought to the House my worries and concerns for my constituents at that time.

As Joe Chadwick-Bell, chief executive officer of East Sussex healthcare NHS trust, wrote at the time of the announcement:

“Uckfield DSU cannot safely support general anaesthetic or overnight care, and does not carry out surgical procedures on patients with a higher risk of complications, such as those with complex needs, certain disabilities, significant frailty and/or certain concurrent illnesses. In those cases, even day case procedures must be carried out in an acute hospital environment where the full scope of supporting clinical services is on site. Uckfield theatre sessions are not currently well used. The reason is partly due to the safety criteria mentioned above, but also partly because some of the procedures that we previously carried out at Uckfield are no longer commissioned by the NHS. It is also because advances in care mean many of those procedures no longer need day theatres, so are delivered in normal treatment rooms.

Over the course of the pilot, we will evaluate the impact of the changes and consider options for the future of day surgery at Uckfield. It is in all our interests to make the best use possible of what is a valued asset for the NHS in Sussex.”

This pilot is so unfair. Frankly, the surgical unit in Uckfield was condemned to not stand a chance—with no staff, no anaesthetists and treatment figures already manoeuvred by the East Sussex healthcare trust. That is the view of staff. Another blow to the staff at the unit came at the start of 2025, when Kamsons Pharmacy closed—and left, I understand, with some clouds over the terms of its departure. Frankly, why has this happened?

One year on, my residents are not taking this lying down. They have got together a local petition, which at present stands at 6,366 signatures. But it is the uncertainty that is causing local residents a great deal of stress and panic. I will be building on this petition after this debate. People need local services. They need family and friends nearby to help with operations, getting to the hospital and out of hospital, and they need care in the community—all of which this Government are committed to. My residents need answers.

I have had meetings, after much pleading, with three recent chief executive officers of the integrated care board: Adam Doyle, who personally promised me and my casework team updates in early August; Mark Smith; and the newly appointed chief executive officer of NHS Sussex, Karen McDowell, who I had the most recent meeting with last week. NHS England reorganisation and staff changes have left me and my casework team in the dark, just like my constituents under this Government, who I know are committed to local community services just as I am.

I stress again how important the day surgery unit is to providing local care. Uckfield hospital is a vital facility. It must not slip through our fingers. Its staff—some of whom have now retired or left in upset, anger and frustration—are worried. The CEO has kindly written to me since we met and said:

“I clearly heard the commitment of you and the local people for Uckfield community hospital, and am speaking to our commissioning teams who have been working with East Sussex healthcare NHS trust around their pilot specifically on day surgery but also—and likely more importantly—our terms working to develop neighbourhood care, and the potential for this asset within its work.”

I thank her for this letter and share it gratefully.

To recap for the Minister, a thriving surgical day unit has been mothballed. The manager of the hospital has been taken away and not replaced. Anaesthetists have been moved elsewhere and are not accessible. Patients are now directed to other surgical sites. Staff heard out of the blue of a six-month mothballing and were given roles miles away from Uckfield. The League of Friends’ assets have been stripped from the site. A year later, we are still in the dark, with no decision taken and no ICB head willing to put their head above the parapet. We need to know what comes next.

My well-loved hospital is a vital community service. Our town and area are growing at a rapid rate, with a significant amount of housing being built and due to be built. There is difficulty involved in getting around a rural area and there is an impact from the public having to get to Eastbourne.

Lots of people have moved from the coast and from London and have taken the opportunity to work locally, and they expect NHS services on the doorstep. That is why I am grateful to be in the Chamber this evening to ask the Minister to look at this vital matter for me and my constituents and to do all that she can. We need this facility to thrive, with the community hospital and its wide-ranging services backed to the hilt. Crucially, we want the Uckfield day surgery back doing what it should: operating.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Ms Nusrat Ghani)]

The hon. Member for East Grinstead and Uckfield (Mims Davies) is a strong campaigner on behalf of Uckfield community hospital and its services, which my constituents in Sussex Weald will have used and would want to use, so I too look forward to hearing the Minister’s response.

International Men’s Day

Mims Davies Excerpts

Thursday 20th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

I thank the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Josh Newbury) for leading this debate on International Men’s Day. He focused on wellbeing and modern masculinity. He was hugely brave and absolutely right when he said that no victim should not be able to speak out and seek justice. It was wonderful to hear his positives around the joy of fatherhood.

It is always a pleasure to speak on behalf of His Majesty’s loyal Opposition. I particularly welcome this debate as the co-chair, along with the hon. Member for Bishop Auckland (Sam Rushworth), of the all-party parliamentary group on men and boy’s issues. He spoke about the preciousness of fatherhood and I am delighted to be working with him. I thank all the men and women in this place who have stood up for the men in their constituencies. I thank those in East Grinstead and Uckfield who are taking part in Movember, raising money for charity, raising awareness of men’s health and growing some really iffy ’taches in certain areas—very praiseworthy.

The theme for 2025, as mentioned throughout the debate, is celebrating men and boys, and I think we have done that incredibly well. We need to talk about the positive value that men bring to families and communities. We have reflected that well this afternoon, but frankly—hence our all-party parliamentary group—we need to do it more often. I thank all dads, father figures and top chaps. It is vital that we talk about the positives.

My dad has long passed, but I am going to give his favourite joke a go because, as the Dad Shift rightly says, we need to highlight crucial role models and fathers. I still love it: how does the monkey cook his toast? Under the gorilla, of course. [Laughter.] There we go. How was that, Lincoln? My hon. Friend the Member for Spelthorne (Lincoln Jopp) has been judging the jokes.

[Lincoln Jopp (Spelthorne) (Con)]

Very good!

[Mims Davies]

My dad suffered from a head injury, so I was struck by the contribution of the hon. Member for Hitchin (Alistair Strathern) about that being an unseen issue, and I thank him for raising it. Headway was particularly brilliant in my father’s case.

Turning to how we talk about masculinity in a positive way, as we have heard this afternoon, role models are so important. If men and boys are only told that they are the problem and that the issues they face do not matter, we cannot be surprised when they flock to questionable social media influencers and people on the fringes of politics who tell them, in the wrong way, that they do in fact matter and have value. For us, it is important to reflect on the work of the Centre for Policy Research on Men and Boys. It states that the narrative must continue to change from the problems that young men and boys cause, to the problems young men and boys have, and that we should now do something to properly help them. That would be incredibly welcome.

As the mum of two girls, I know that they want boys to feel the support and positivity that young girls rightly have. It was right for the hon. Member for Portsmouth North (Amanda Martin) to big up her young boys and the importance of protecting our youngsters from harm. Gambling and pornography we know about, but there are other sectors where young men, particularly young farmers, can feel isolated, lonely and struggling. The hon. Member for Loughborough (Dr Sandher) rightly talked about men wanting a decent life. It is vital to look back on employment, but it is the employment opportunities now that truly matter. I completely agree on that.

The recent crucial Centre for Social Justice report “Lost Boys” identified six areas where boys and young men are falling behind in this generational crisis.

The first area was education, where boys underperform at every stage, lagging behind girls from early years to university. The second area was employment, where, as we have heard, the number of males aged 16 to 24 who are not in education, employment or training has increased since the pandemic by a staggering 40%. The third area was health; suicide is the top cause of death for men under 50, and many of us have lost family members or friends because of suicide. The fourth area was family and fatherhood: one in five boys grow up without a father—an epidemic of fatherlessness that is linked to poor outcomes. The fifth area was crime; 96% of the prison population is male. The final area was digital behaviour, with platforms amplifying misogynistic influencers and extremist content, shaping identity and attitudes for our young men.

I thank Jane Packer and the team at the British Standards Institution. I was proud to join the BSI event in Speaker’s House last night on the new suicide and workplace standard to help employers support the wellbeing of men and boys across the country. I am proud to continue to work with the Samaritans—I am wearing the badge today—which tells me it needs more volunteers to do its great work, particularly supporting and listening to men.

Now that I have the Health Secretary sitting opposite me, let me highlight that the Government have not resumed recruitment of the men’s health ambassador. Perhaps he will tell the House differently in his speech. Opposition Members who were in the previous Government would love to see that.

Yesterday, I met Richard and the amazing team at MAN v FAT, who do great work, particularly in Wales, with all communities, using football and rugby to help with being fit and healthy and focusing on body image. Again, like the Samaritans, it is a male space in which to talk.

Under the last Conservative Government, the suicide prevention grant provided £10 million for 79 organisations between 2023 and March 2025. We rightly welcome—and I think it is roundly welcomed—the dedicated men’s health strategy. However, it does appear to have less money than the £10 million under the previous Government, at £3.6 million over the next three years. I ask the Health Secretary to help boost and push the neighbourhood-based support for suicide prevention. The £3 million is very welcome, but we absolutely need to push forward on health and community-based programmes.

International Men’s Day is the opportunity for all of us to promote charities and initiatives in our constituencies, like the amazing men’s sheds that have been mentioned today. Brilliant initiatives in my constituency also include the growing East Grinstead Sea Cadets, the Scouts and many after-school clubs, which all make a big difference supporting our men and boys—they are something to do and somewhere to talk to someone. The Uckfield Youth Club—like many groups—needs more volunteers and leaders.

As MPs, today and every day, we should be encouraging men to seek help in our communities; we should check in on them to highlight the positives. I would like to do that with one of my councillors, Ed Godwin, who is passionate about involving young people in politics. At just 18 he stood to be a town councillor and serve his community, and I am proud to welcome him into politics. I also mention Councillor Gary Marsh in Mid Sussex, a district councillor for Ardingly, Balcombe and Turness Hill in my constituency, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer at the start of the year. He has used his platform to urge men not to ignore the signs, and to ensure that his constituents and ours know that there is help out there.

I thank Mark Brooks OBE for his 10 years of work with the Association for Male Health and Wellbeing to get this parliamentary debate so that we can keenly talk about men’s issues. It is vital that MPs champion causes, particularly for men, and discuss, debate and strive to help men and boys with the issues affecting them nationally and internationally. It will help all communities, and all Members in the Chamber have made great contributions to that work today. I truly think that when all parties work together we will see the changes that we need for the better—which may include an improvement in the quality of dad jokes in the Chamber.

Cross-border Healthcare

Mims Davies Excerpts

Tuesday 4th November 2025 Westminster Hall

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

May I take a moment to say how pleased and honoured I am to respond to this important debate—we have heard why it is important—on behalf of His Majesty’s loyal Opposition, as the shadow Secretary of State for Wales? It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd.

I sincerely thank the hon. Member for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe (David Chadwick) for securing this incredibly timely debate examining cross-border health services, constituents’ experiences of them and the wider challenges across the health service in Wales and Scotland. Some formal points have been put on the record about Wales in particular. There have been passionate and concerned approaches from Members this afternoon, particularly the hon. Member for Montgomeryshire and Glyndŵr (Steve Witherden).

Today, the Chamber has heard pertinent and passionate contributions from across the political divide regarding disappointing healthcare affecting people, despite the best efforts of staff members, as has been drawn out in the comments today. These first-class, dedicated and hard-working teams are in essence grappling with the challenges of devolution. My hon. Friend the Member for Berwickshire, Roxburgh and Selkirk (John Lamont) rightly highlighted that before devolution, services were connected to people’s communities, places of convenience or connection and shorter car journeys. It led to services that actually worked for them, and that matters. The challenges of the reality facing our constituents and those we care for have been highlighted in today’s debate.

The hon. Member for Brecon, Radnor and Cwm Tawe rightly mentioned the ridiculousness of “too quickly” and how some constituents looking for hospital care were asked to give slower responses. How on earth can someone receive that message and be able to manage it? That affects not only the staff on the ground.

Lack of access and issues around medical records were raised today. The hon. Member for North Northumberland (David Smith) rightly talked about joined-up thinking. It is not clear where people will be sent and referred to, whether in Scotland or around the English border. We need a British healthcare system that works in the situations that people or their loved ones may find themselves in. Staff on the ground are putting in their very best efforts. It is simply not good enough to be still looking at this issue.

Since taking up this role, one of the things that has been front and centre when meeting and listening to people is their experiences across the NHS in Wales as a whole: how they worry about their families and their care, the disjointed nature of the process and, frankly, what feels like a lack of interest and joined-up approach from Ministers. I ask that the Secretary of State for Wales takes note of what is said in this Chamber this afternoon—and indeed the Secretary of State for Scotland. Similarly, I hope that the Minister for Care, the hon. Member for Aberafan Maesteg (Stephen Kinnock) will take a similar interest, given that it is the Welsh NHS that delivers for his constituents.

We know too many people, whether our family or friends, who are waiting in pain and in vain. Given the changes in the NHS in England, they want this Government to be interested in what happens in Wales and Scotland, and that they are using the fabled two Governments. I know the need for this debate, which in parts has been strident. We are here to make sure that this challenge is taken up and pursued in the places where it exists, by both Labour Governments in Cardiff Bay and in Westminster.

Since I have taken on this role, I have continually pointed out that since 1999—yes, since Tony Blair was Prime Minister—the Labour Welsh Government have controlled the health service in Wales. Despite some pleasant colleagues from Plaid Cymru and the Liberal Democrats, it is important to remember that parties there have been backing the Labour Government in Wales, and there has been far too little change. I was particularly pleased to hear the hon. Member for Ynys Môn (Llinos Medi) taking the opportunity, rightly, to point out that for her constituents, change needs to happen. The people of Wales and those using cross-border health services will not accept it if this debate does not lead to change. The answer is simple. People should not be holding their breath to see a change in their experiences; they should be seeing different outcomes.

The Conservatives tried to take up this task, but as we heard today, the challenge around devolution has left it in a difficult state. During the last Parliament, the then Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my right hon. Friend the Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Steve Barclay), reached out to the Health Minister in Wales—the now First Minister, Baroness Eluned Morgan —recognising the disparities. He asked that they bring officials together—as has been asked for again today—to see how all our UK nations could work together to reduce NHS waiting lists and support the people of Wales. It was bitterly disappointing to see that opportunity to engage not taken up. It was a vital and genuine offer, based on all the reasons that we have heard in the Chamber this afternoon. I would love to hear the Minister tell the House whether that decision is regretful. It seems short-sighted, especially given the ongoing messages in today’s debate.

Can the Minister reveal whether she would like to do the same thing and reach out and offer to assist Welsh Government Ministers, as my party did? We would all be assured by that, and we would all assist in any way to make this change. We also committed in last year’s general election to accelerate investment into new hospitals in Llandrindod Wells, Flint and Newtown to improve cross-border services. Can the Minister commit to an update on that, as it will make a real difference in people’s lives?

I was fascinated to hear from the hon. Member for South Antrim (Robin Swann), that where technology, co-operation and partnership is focused, it can change lives. That is the outcome we are looking for here. Despite the feeling that this issue is about funding, it feels more about delivering and making sure that cross-border services work, no matter what party someone belongs to or what part of the country they live in. Wales desperately needs more nurses and doctors, not more politicians in Cardiff Bay. My colleagues, the Welsh Conservatives, led a debate on this topic in July, making it clear that they felt some of the funding could and should have been redirected at cross-border waiting times.

I will conclude by asking the Minister—given the cross-border experiences discussed and what hon. Members have pleaded for on behalf of their constituents—whether she will work with the Wales Office to deliver an inquiry into the preventable deaths, particularly those under the Betsi Cadwaladr university health board. David Jones from Flintshire and many others want that inquiry to be delivered under the Inquiries Act 2005. I look forward to hearing from the Minister on how, by delivering on our commitment and listening to what has been said in this debate, she can take forward people’s experiences so that they are at the heart of what Parliament discussed this afternoon, and real change can be delivered.

Women’s Health Strategy

Mims Davies Excerpts

Thursday 30th January 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

(Urgent Question): To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care if he will make a statement on the women’s health strategy.

[The Minister for Secondary Care (Karin Smyth)]

I thank the hon. Lady for giving me the opportunity to set out our commitment to the women’s health strategy and everything that this Government are doing to fix our broken NHS, clean up the mess that the Conservatives left after 14 years and get women treated on time again.

When we came into office we inherited record waiting lists. The gynaecology waiting list stood at just under 600,000 women. Let that sink in—600,000 women in pain, waiting to be cared for. Almost half the women on gynaecology waiting lists are waiting more than 18 weeks. That is why the Prime Minister kicked off 2025 with our elective reform plan, setting out how we will cut the longest waiting lists from 18 months to 18 weeks. Our new agreement with the independent sector will mean that, where there is spare capacity in the private sector, women will be treated faster for gynaecology care, paid for by the state.

The Government are also committed to rooting out the appalling inequalities in maternity care. We are supporting failing trusts to make rapid improvements, training thousands more midwives for the first time, and we will set an explicit target to close the black and Asian maternal mortality gap. We are piloting a training programme to help avoid brain injury for babies in childbirth and, if successful, we will crack on with rolling it out nationally this year. In October, we extended the baby loss certificate service to help mums and dads who have suffered the heartbreak of pregnancy loss.

Let me also address the issue of women’s health hubs. There was a target in last year’s planning guidance to roll out pilot women’s health hubs across the country by last December. Today, there are at least 80 hubs, and at least nine out of every10 integrated care systems have an open women’s health hub.

Let me correct some fake news. We are not closing these hubs; we are not cutting them. The target to roll them out was in last year’s planning guidance. It was achieved in 93% of integrated care systems, which is why the target is not repeated in this year’s guidance—it has been met in 39 out of 42 areas.

Today, we have slimmed down the number of targets for the NHS so that we can focus on fixing the fundamentals —the system that the previous Government broke. We are instructing the NHS to prioritise: cutting waiting times for operations, A&E and ambulances; making it easier for people to see a GP or a dentist; and improving the mental health of the nation. That will mean around 60,000 women with suspected cancer are diagnosed earlier and treated faster; more than 200,000 extra women will be treated within 18 weeks, as we drive down long waits; and fewer women will be forced to wait 12 hours in A&E. That is the difference that a Labour Government are making to women’s health.

[Mims Davies]

For too long, a woman’s experience of the health service has been one of being pushed from pillar to post. Crucially, women’s voices have been ignored and responses to their pain, suffering, poor sex lives and traumatic births have been too slow. Overall, women have a sense of being forgotten. Some 2.4 million more women were in work under our Conservative Government. Pain and suffering were affecting too many women and their ability to remain in the labour market, resulting in early retirement or not having their true career potential fulfilled.

We took direct action, crucially, by listening to women’s experiences. We had almost 100,000 responses to our call for evidence on the gender health gap. We appointed Dame Lesley Regan as the woman’s health ambassador, and Helen Tomlinson as the cross-government menopause ambassador to find out the experience of women employed in different sectors. We delivered and funded new women’s health hubs and created joined-up services in the community. The Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecologists estimates that removing the requirement of integrated care boards to have a woman’s health hub will impact 600,000 women on waiting lists in England, creating longer waits, disease progression that could be prevented, and resulting in more women attending A&E, unable to work, care or live a fulfilled life.

Labour’s manifesto said that it will prioritise women’s health. Women are now reported to be a lobby group, relegated to being unheard once again. Will the Minister confirm whether it is true that the targets to deal with women’s needs will be dropped? If so, what is her justification for that? Will she be delivering on the roundly welcomed women’s health strategy from 2022?

A total of 1,300 families gave evidence to the all-party group on birth trauma. What are the plans to drive up maternity safety standards across the country? Will there be a response to that? Will Dame Lesley Regan be sacked, will she remain the women’s health ambassador, or will she be replaced, as Helen Tomlinson was, by someone who seems more interested in selling books than in delivering on the ground for women? What steps are being be taken on sex-specific language in health communications and guidance—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Caroline Nokes)]

Order. The shadow Minister will know that there is a time limit, which she has exceeded. I have been very generous. I call the Minister.

NHS: Independent Investigation

Mims Davies Excerpts

Thursday 12th September 2024 Commons Chamber

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

With permission, I would like to make a statement on Lord Darzi’s investigation into the NHS.

Unlike the last holders of this office, this Government will be honest about the problems the NHS faces and serious about fixing them. That is why I asked Lord Darzi, an eminent cancer surgeon who served both Labour and Conservative-led Governments with distinction, to conduct an independent investigation into the state of our national health service. I am sure the whole House will want to join me in thanking him for producing this expert, comprehensive report, a copy of which I have placed in the Libraries of both Houses.

I told Lord Darzi that we wanted hard truths, warts and all. His findings are raw, honest and breathtaking. He says:

“Although I have worked in the NHS for more than 30 years, I have been shocked by what I have found”.

He has uncovered an enormous charge sheet, too long to list in this statement, so these are just a few: the NHS has not been able to meet its promises to treat patients on time for almost a decade; patients have never been more dissatisfied with the service they receive; waiting lists for mental health and community services have surged; 50 years of progress on cardiovascular disease is going into reverse; and cancer is more likely to be a death sentence for NHS patients than for patients in other countries. It is not just the sickness in the NHS that concerns Lord Darzi, but sickness in society. Children are sicker today than a decade ago and adults are falling into ill health earlier in life. That is piling pressure on to the NHS and holding back our economy.

Those are some of the symptoms; the report is equally damning on the causes. First, a decade of under-investment left the NHS 15 years behind the private sector on technology, with fewer diagnostic scanners per patient than almost every comparable country, including Belgium, Italy and Greece, and in 2024 mental health patients are treated in Victorian buildings with cockroach and mouse infestations, where 17 men are forced to share two showers.

Secondly, there was the disastrous 2012 top-down reorganisation overseen by Lord Lansley. Lord Darzi’s assessment is damning:

“A calamity without international precedent…it took a ‘scorched earth’ approach to health reform”.

“By 2015…ministers were…putting in place ‘workarounds and sticking plasters’ to bypass the legislation”.

“Rather than liberating the NHS, as promised, the Health and Social Care Act 2012 imprisoned more than a million NHS staff in a broken system for the best part of a decade”.

“the effects…are still felt to this day.”

Just imagine if all the time, effort and billions of pounds wasted on dissolving and reconstituting management structures had instead been invested in services for patients—clearly, the NHS would not be in the mess it finds itself in today.

Thirdly, there was coronavirus. Everyone can see the lasting damage caused by the pandemic, but until now we did not know that the pandemic hit the NHS harder than any other comparable healthcare system in the world.

The NHS cancelled far more operations and routine care than anywhere else. As Lord Darzi writes:

“The pandemic’s impact was magnified because the NHS had been seriously weakened in the decade preceding its onset.”

In other words, it is not just that the Conservatives did not fix the roof while the sun was shining; they doused the house in petrol and left the gas on, and covid just lit the match. That is why waiting lists have ballooned to 7.6 million today. [Interruption.] If I were an Opposition Member, I would not complain about the diagnosis. I would take responsibility.

Fourthly—this sits firmly at Opposition Members’ door, so they should sit and listen—there was the failure to reform. From 2019 onwards, the previous Government oversaw a 17% increase in the number of staff working in hospitals. Did it lead to better outcomes for patients? No. At great expense to the taxpayer, the NHS has instead seen a huge fall in productivity. We paid more, but got less—a deplorable waste of resources when so many parts of our health and care services were crying out for investment. As Lord Darzi has put it:

“British Airways wouldn’t train more pilots without buying more planes.”

Doctors and nurses are wasting their time trying to find beds for their patients and dealing with outdated IT when they ought to be treating patients.

Too many people end up in hospital because they cannot get the help that they need from a pharmacy, a GP or social care. The effective reforms of the last Labour Government, which drove better performance and better care for patients, have mostly been undone, and that is why patients cannot get a GP appointment, an operation or even an ambulance when they need one today. That is what the Conservatives did to take the NHS from the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in history to the broken NHS that we see today.

Lord Darzi has given his diagnosis. Now it is over to us to write the prescription, and we have three choices. The first is to continue the Conservatives’ neglect, and allow the NHS to collapse. That is the path on which they set the NHS, and the path that it is on today. Or we could—as some of my critics on the left demand—pour ever-increasing amounts of money in without reform, wasting money that is not there and that working people cannot afford to pay. That would be wasteful and irresponsible, so we will not take that path. This Government are making a different choice: we choose recovery and reform. We are taking action today to deal with the immediate crisis by hiring 1,000 GPs whom the Conservatives had left without a job while patients were going without an appointment, and agreeing an offer to end the strikes that they allowed to cripple our health service.

At the same time, we will introduce the fundamental reforms needed to secure the future of our NHS. Earlier today, my right hon. Friend the Prime Minister confirmed that the Government would publish a 10-year plan for change and modernisation, on the foundation of Lord Darzi’s report. Our plan will deliver the three big shifts needed to make our NHS fit for the future. The first is from analogue to digital, giving patients proper choice and control over their own healthcare, and finally realising the untapped potential of the NHS app. There will be fully digital patient records so that your surgeon can see the notes that your GP writes. By marrying our country’s leading scientific minds with the care of more than 1.5 million NHS staff, we will put NHS patients at the front of the queue for cutting-edge medicines and treatments that we can only imagine today.

Secondly, there is the shift from hospital to community, turning our NHS into a neighbourhood as much as a national health service so that patients can get their tests and scans on their high streets and be cared for from the comfort of their own homes. That means bringing back the family doctor and building a national care service that can be there for us when we need it, able to meet the challenges of this century.

Thirdly, there is the shift from sickness to prevention, which means taking the decisions that the Conservatives ducked to give our children a healthy, happy start in life. It means stopping the targeting of junk food ads at children, banning energy drinks for under-16s, reforming the NHS to catch illness earlier—starting by offering health checks in workplaces and on smartphones—and delivering the Tobacco and Vapes Bill that the Conservatives failed to pass, to tackle one of society’s biggest killers.

Lord Darzi’s diagnosis is that the NHS is in a “critical condition”—unless we perform major surgery, the patient will die—but he also finds that

“its vital signs are strong”:

an extraordinary depth of clinical talent, and a shared determination to improve care for patients. This is a public service, free at the point of use, so that whenever we fall ill we never have to worry about the bill. The NHS is broken, but it is not beaten. Every person I have met in the NHS during my first two months as Health and Social Care Secretary is up for the challenge. It will take time, but this party—the party that created the NHS—has turned the NHS around before, and we will do it again. I commend this statement to the House.

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

[Mr Speaker]

How long has the hon. Member been here? Points of order come at the end—you cannot intervene in the middle of these proceedings.

I call the shadow Secretary of State.

--- Later in debate ---

[Wes Streeting]

It sticks in the craw to hear the carping and criticism from the Conservatives, and their obvious bitter resentment that we were able to do in three weeks what they failed to do in over a year. All the while they complain about the costs of solving the strikes, they say nothing about the costs they racked up—the direct financial costs of covering the strikes, as well as the untold costs of misery to patients whose operations, procedures and appointments were cancelled, even as the shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care and her Ministers had not even bothered to meet the junior doctors since March this year. The Conservatives have no grounds to complain.

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

I thank those who daily work in NHS services across our country. If the Secretary of State is truly serious about assisting and supporting the whole of our NHS in England, across all our constituencies, “warts and all”, as he says, will he explain thoroughly why the health outcomes and experiences of families across Wales, over the last 25 years, do not merit this attention equally? Is it perhaps because Wales is Labour-run?

[Wes Streeting]

I have never denied, nor have the Welsh Government, that our health and social care systems are in crisis across the United Kingdom, and that waiting times and patient outcomes are not where they should be. [Interruption.] The Conservatives do not wish to acknowledge the truth, and even now, without a shred of humility or acceptance of the responsibility of their record in government, they carp from the sidelines. They will not admit or accept that different parts of the United Kingdom have different strengths and weaknesses.

Regardless of the fact that there is a Scottish National party Government in Scotland or a unique arrangement in Northern Ireland, as well my friends in the Welsh Government, I am proud that in my first weekend as Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, I made it my business to phone my counterparts in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. I made it clear that we will always work constructively, whatever our parties and however hard we will fight each other at the ballot box. Rather than pointing fingers at other parts of the United Kingdom, as the Conservatives did when they were in government, this Government are determined, just as the last Labour Government were, to create a rising tide that lifts all ships. I look forward to working with every devolved Administration to improve health and care outcomes across the whole of our United Kingdom.

Points of Order

Mims Davies Excerpts

Thursday 12th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. We are all passionate about our hospices, our hospitals, our GP practices and the other health services that our constituents get. Coming to this place is not for the faint-hearted, but is it appropriate for the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care to adopt the tone that he brought to the Chamber earlier? As I say, we are all passionate, but perhaps his tone—his bedside manner, may I say—needs a new approach on occasion. I noted his more collegial tone later in the statement, but to tell Opposition hon. Members—we are all hon. Members in this place—to sit down and listen, or to liken some previous holders of his role to arsonists and similar paraphernalia, is not befitting of this Chamber.

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

Further to that point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. I like the hon. Lady very much, and I will just say two things in response: first, she has been around in this Chamber a long time. Conservative Members cannot sit and heckle, then get cross when Ministers respond robustly. Secondly, I think that was a perfectly legitimate analogy; indeed, I might say that the arsonists should not complain about the fire brigade.

Government Policy on Health

Mims Davies Excerpts

Monday 9th September 2024 Commons Chamber

[Wes Streeting]

It is not for me, thankfully, to answer for the shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care; it is just my responsibility to clean up her mess.

[Mims Davies (East Grinstead and Uckfield) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State please illuminate the House about any conflict of interest concerning the gentleman in question? Did he head into the ministerial floor or access the Department? Many of us want our constituents to access health services and GP appointments. Did the right honourable gentleman, who is the Secretary of State’s friend from the old days and with whom he has worked with previously, have a day pass or a departmental pass? Beyond the bluster, can the Secretary of State assure hon. Members that there is no conflict of interest?

[Wes Streeting]

My right honourable friend, Alan Milburn, does not have a role in the Department. He does not have a pass to the Department. I am asked whether he has accessed the ministerial floor. I do not know where the Conservatives held their meetings, but I tend to hold them in my office on the ministerial floor.