NHS Breast Screening

Peter Fortune Excerpts

Monday 29th June 2026 Westminster Hall

[Irene Campbell]

I thank the hon. Member for his intervention. I, too, look forward to hearing the Minister’s response on that issue.

Some 1.94 million women between the ages of 50 and 70 were screened in 2024-25, and almost 20,000 cancers were detected. Cancers were detected in nine in every 1,000 women, which is a 16% increase on the previous year. Attendance to screening reached the highest level in a decade and has been championed by charities such as Breast Cancer Now, which shares public figures, stories and personal messages.

[Peter Fortune (Bromley and Biggin Hill) (Con)]

I thank the hon. Member for securing this important debate. Does she share my concern about the difference between the numbers of first-time attendees to screening and returning attendees, at 89.1% and 63% respectively? Does she have a view on how we can increase the number attending their first screening?

[Irene Campbell]

Screening is key, and we have to be bolder and more inventive about how we get people along to screening. There have been many public health campaigns over the years. After a campaign, there is always a rise in attendance, but when the campaign stops, attendance falls again, so I agree that that is something that the Minister must look at.

Isle of Wight Dementia Patients: Discharge to Mainland Care Homes

Peter Fortune Excerpts

Tuesday 16th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[Richard Quigley]

I thank my hon. Friend for that timely intervention. Before I get into the deeply troubling accounts that have been brought to me, I pay tribute to Maggie Bennett and her team who run the Parklands Alzheimer’s café. While the café cannot offer overnight accommodation, it offers vital respite for carers. Loved ones can spend a great day at the café, doing activities, chatting over tea and cake and even getting their hair cut. However, for island dementia sufferers, that is where the happy story ends.

The issue of mainland discharges has struck a chord across the island because it goes to the heart of many of the other inequalities my constituents have been expected simply to accept as part island life. We are the only English island where the sole means of transport on and off is entirely privately operated. Coupled with that, we have only a small specialist dementia in-patient ward, and no dedicated long-term NHS dementia provision. There is a very real fear that when someone is at their most vulnerable, where they live will determine how they are treated and whether they are afforded the dignity they deserve: the dignity of being close to family, of continuity in care, and of remaining in the place they call home.

For those unfamiliar with the situation, the recent closure of three care homes on the Isle of Wight, including one in Freshwater in my constituency, has led to 44 residents being displaced, with 10 already placed in care homes on the mainland. The niece of one resident living with dementia contacted my office to say that she is terrified that her uncle will die in his proposed placement in Horsham, 70 miles away,

“alone, confused and feeling that no one cares.”

Worse still, his family have been told that if they do not accept the placement, they will be liable to pay £500 a day for the hospital bed he will need to occupy.

Other than a few brief periods away, the Isle of Wight is the only home that Phyllis, Adam and Rob Snow’s 87-year-old island-born mother, has ever known. Phyllis now requires round-the-clock care due to a brutal combination of dementia and Parkinson’s, and her family are absolutely terrified by reports of patients like her being relocated to the mainland. With Phyllis already having been stuck on a hospital ward for months, her family are in a lose-lose situation: they either watch her become more vulnerable to infection the longer she spends in hospital, or push for a care home release only for her to be relocated miles away from the only home she has ever known.

It is important to understand how dementia care is currently funded on the Isle of Wight. Much of our provision relies on a limited number of block-booked beds commissioned by the local authority, layered on to an adult social care budget that is already under severe strain.

[Peter Fortune (Bromley and Biggin Hill) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman is giving a typically excellent and passionate speech. No person living with dementia should be removed from their family or support network. Does he agree that as the NHS is restructured, there needs to be a proper focus on outcomes for dementia sufferers right across the country?

[Richard Quigley]

I could not agree more; a national dementia strategy is of the utmost importance. As I will go on to say, we currently have a situation where people are being moved away from home or where the care they need just is not available.

Nationally, 87% of care services are now commissioned by councils or the NHS at rates below the true cost of care, and locally contracts are being let at around £24 an hour—only 84% of the Homecare Association’s minimum recommended rate. Within that model, smaller island providers are often subcontracted by larger mainland-based organisations at even lower rates. Despite demand continuing to rise, the island is one of the only authorities inadvertently forcing local care providers to make staff redundant or even consider closure, simply because the funding does not stack up and because price increases are not being passed on to those smaller providers by first-tier commissioning organisations. I strongly urge the Minister to press Isle of Wight council to ensure that any funding uplift reaches the frontline providers that are actually delivering care.

Once again, with no dedicated long-term NHS dementia ward on the island, as soon as those block contracts are full, as they increasingly are, there is simply nowhere else for people to go. At that point, decisions are no longer driven by what is best for the individual, but by whatever capacity happens to be available.

The closure of three care homes this year has not occurred in a vacuum. In 2022, the island lost six care homes. With one third of our population aged 65 and over, alongside staff turnover rates that are significantly higher than the national average, this is a system already under immense strain. While dementia care on the Isle of Wight is delivered across a mix of NHS, council and private provision, the reality is that the capacity and specialist care has not been enough for some time.

This is not just an island problem; it is a warning of what lies ahead for the country as our population ages. In making that point, I wish to strongly advocate for any measures the Government consider adopting to confront this national challenge being piloted on the Isle of Wight, where the need is greatest and where meaningful change can be delivered most urgently and, most importantly, measured in almost real time. What makes the Isle of Wight a particularly stark case is the added cruelty of our geography: the reality that families must cross the Solent, which some estimates have placed as the most expensive stretch of water in Europe, in order to visit a loved one who is sick and in need of care that simply cannot be provided closer to home.

Eighty-two-year-old Graham Martin, who is living with dementia, is yet another example of the impact of this reality. In mid-April, he was moved to Southampton against the wishes of his family because of his complex needs, separating him from his wife of 63 years, Carol, who is unable to travel to visit him due to her own health and the cost of ferry travel. Being moved away from home, across a stretch of water, is distressing enough; being effectively cut off from loved ones because they cannot afford or physically manage the journey, at the very moment that people need their family most, borders on forced isolation.

As the niece of another patient facing a mainland placement said to me, “Imagine a vulnerable elderly resident in Westminster being sent to a care home on the Isle of Wight. It simply would not happen.” It would not happen because in other parts of the country, the system would not tolerate separating vulnerable people from their families in this way, yet for the Isle of Wight, that basic standard is not applied.

MPs and Ministers all the way up to the Prime Minister have heard me talk relentlessly about how the island is a brilliant place to live, work and learn, and despite my intervention today I still believe that to be the case. But that comes despite the inequality and deprivation we face, which is hidden by neighbouring prosperity. Whether it is schools unable to take a trip across the Solent due to budgetary constraints, young workers having to look for jobs elsewhere due to lack of opportunity, or—as I have spoken about today—an elderly person ripped away from their home because of lack of capacity, the Isle of Wight has been functioning with one arm tied behind its back. The time has come to do something about it.

When capacity on the island runs out—and without the necessary action, it inevitably will—people are not just delayed but displaced. What should be an absolute last resort for the most vulnerable people is fast becoming a routine response, with elderly people being sent miles from their home simply because the system cannot cope. That is neither sustainable nor dignified, and it cannot be allowed to continue. I ask the Minister to take action for the benefit of my Isle of Wight residents.

Type 1 Diabetes: Infant Testing

Peter Fortune Excerpts

Monday 9th March 2026 Westminster Hall

[Irene Campbell]

I agree with the points that my hon. Friend raises. The research and emerging information from the ELSA study should be considered as soon as possible.

In Diabetes UK’s campaign, the four Ts stand for “toilet”, “thirsty”, “tired” and “thinner”. Recognising those symptoms is key to the campaign.

In preparation for this debate, I met representatives of the Royal College of General Practitioners, who advised me that after hearing Lyla’s story, they urgently reviewed their curriculum and made sure that their continuing professional development resources adequately covered type 1 diabetes symptoms in children and followed NICE guidelines. They also said that they are working with NHS England colleagues on the availability and use of point-of-care capillary blood testing for type 1 diabetes. That is a rapid finger-prick glucose test.

[Peter Fortune (Bromley and Biggin Hill) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship for the first time, Sir Alec. With NHS England set to be abolished, how does the hon. Member suggest the Government ensure that awareness for testing for type 1 diabetes continues? Does she agree that it should not be left to fall by the wayside or be picked up by organisations such as Diabetes UK?

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Bool (South Northamptonshire) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Alec. I start by paying tribute to Lyla Story, a little girl whose death, aged two, from undiagnosed type 1 diabetes has brought us here today. I wish I could have been giving her a tour of Parliament rather than talking in this capacity, but her name will go down in the history of Parliament, in Hansard, because of the dedicated work that has been done. I pay tribute to her parents, Emma and John, who are with us in the Gallery and who have campaigned tirelessly to raise awareness of this condition. I commend their courage and determination in the face of such grief. I think they have much greater strength than many of us would have in a similar situation.

If I had been asked about diabetes five years ago, on 9 March 2021, I would probably have said that my auntie had it, and that it was due to poor diet. If I had been asked the same question on 21 May 2021, I would have given a completely different answer. The change is that I was diagnosed as type 1 diabetic at the age of 33. In the space of 24 hours, from going for a blood test for something innocuous, my world entirely changed, and I was rushed into A&E to be given emergency care.

Like many people outside this Chamber, I had little to no knowledge of type 1. The concept of the four Ts—“tiredness”, “thinner”, “thirst” and “toilet”—were unknown to me. The fact that I started losing weight quite quickly was a bonus, I thought. I did not realise what the signs meant. The fact that 400,000 people in the UK have type 1 was news to me, and that more than one in four children with type 1 diabetes are diagnosed when they are in diabetic ketoacidosis was shocking.

What is diabetic ketoacidosis? It has been mentioned a few times today, and it is a complication that develops when the body lacks sufficient insulin, leading to high blood sugar levels and the breakdown of fat and muscle for energy. This produces harmful chemicals, known as ketones, that make the blood acidic, which is what proves fatal.

The petition before us today seeks to make testing for type 1 diabetes in babies, toddlers and young children a routine part of medical assessments at the point of care. John Story is also seeking to have the NICE guidelines on type 1—NG17 for adults and NG18 for children—updated to include performing a finger-prick test on site at the initial GP appointment, with blood glucose tested using a glucometer. That would occur when a child or adult presented with any symptoms consistent with type 1 diabetes. He would like to see a “test, don’t guess” approach, which we have seen be quite effective for meningitis—we know the signs—and sepsis, so I fully support this concept.

NICE has been receptive to making these changes, but ultimately it will be for the relevant NHS commissioning bodies to put the NICE recommendations into practice. We therefore have to look to NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care to take up this campaign around increased visibility and testing of diabetic ketoacidosis. I echo the question asked by my hon. Friend the Member for Bromley and Biggin Hill (Peter Fortune): with the disbandment of NHS England, what will we be doing in that regard?

[Peter Fortune]

My hon. Friend is making an excellent and passionate speech. I think we all here agree that we need to do more to ensure that those with type 1 diabetes get the support they need. While we are here, does she share my concern that 90% of people diagnosed with diabetes are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, and the total cost of that care in the UK is about £11 billion? Alongside the important support that we give to those with type 1 diabetes, we should be doing more and taking action to ensure that people do not develop type 2.

[Sarah Bool]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right that 90% of cases are actually type 2. That is probably also why we fail to understand the true signs of type 1, because there is real confusion and conflation of the two. I think it would actually give clarity if they were named slightly differently.

My hon. Friend is also right that a tsunami of cases of type 2 will be hitting us in the years to come, and we have to do a lot more to raise awareness of that, whether that is about diet or by sharing the technology. Many of us are trying to be visible in wearing the technology and the patches, such as FreeStyle Libre and Dexcom. I think that is very good for removing the stigma and helping people to understand what we need to do in the future. We definitely need to see that tech rolled out for type 2, as well as for type 1. It can still be a bit of a postcode lottery for type 1 at this stage, which is something else that we have to work on.

We must not just rely on some of the jabs that have recently become popular. They are a means of helping people to lose weight, which can be a significant part of type 2 diabetes, but they may not be the answer. There are events going on at the moment, saying that we should exercise some caution and make sure that any jabs that are taken are actually legitimate and proper, and not counterfeit. That is a sad side of this: people are seeking medical treatments that could also be harmful.

To go back to type 1, I have managed to secure today that I will introduce a 10-minute rule Bill on Tuesday 14 April to make provision for a universal national programme of screening for type 1 diabetes in children, building on all the work that John has been doing. I am working with medical professionals and charities, including Breakthrough T1D—as it is now called—and Diabetes UK, to look into the Italian model that was mentioned, in the hope that we can one day establish a programme that would catch type 1 before symptoms appear, transforming how we diagnose the condition in the future and helping people to prepare earlier.

A lot more research is needed, because the key thing is the age at which someone can be diagnosed. We are working on three potential age ranges at which there would be repeat tests. That is vital and fundamental for the future, to make sure that we do not have one in four children being diagnosed when in a state of DKA.

In the meantime, I reiterate what the hon. Member for Harrogate and Knaresborough (Tom Gordon) said: we want to see the four Ts built into training and education for all healthcare professionals. The four Ts are very important, but that does not necessarily mean that someone has to have every single one of those symptoms. I did not obviously show the signs of all four Ts, but when I had an HbA1c of 95—[Interruption.] That reaction! To put that into context, a normal person might have an average HbA1c of 20, while the threshold for diabetes is 48; I was at 95 at that stage. My ketones at the point of diagnosis were 2.7. At 3, you are at risk of going into DKA, and anything higher—I understand that Lyla may have been at 6 at the point that she was diagnosed—is critical. Clearly, I was very ill, but I had not picked up on all of those signs; I was not aware. Nevertheless, it is important that we have the four Ts in mind, at least as a baseline.

We also want to make sure that all GP practices actually have the finger-prick test—the glucometer—available. Numerous practices have been contacted and they do not always have that, which I think is quite shocking. As a baseline, we also need to make sure that provision is there.

As John has been campaigning hard for, we want to see the NICE guidelines updated to make sure that this is in the mindset of all our medical practitioners. We also want to see it in the personal child health record—the red book—and within the digital Best Start programme. We the CQC’s role in diagnosing type 1 in primary care to be clarified and strengthened—for example, inspections could assess whether staff receive appropriate training.

We want local commissioners to commit to learning from incidents where type 1 is missed. We want NHS England—or whatever the equivalent is when that is disbanded—to work on this further, and we want the Department of Health and Social Care to review opportunities for national initiatives to drive improvements, such as the Getting It Right First Time programme.

Everyone should rest assured that there are many fantastic representatives in Parliament who are type 1, and we will continue to fly the flag: my right hon. Friend the Member for Louth and Horncastle (Victoria Atkins), who sitting in front of me, is type 1; Mr Speaker is type 1; and, of course, Baroness May in the upper House has been a fantastic advocate over the years. I hope that we can also work with some more celebrity figures, whether that is Nikita on “Strictly Come Dancing”, the actor James Norton, the rugby player Henry Slade or the comedian Ed Gamble. There are figures out there, and we just need to make it much more visible and approachable.

Type 1 diabetes is not a scary condition—although it is a very difficult one, don’t get me wrong. We live with it 24 hours a day, whether we are too hot, too cold, tired, stressed or whatever. From what we are eating to when we are exercising, there is a lot we have to think about, but it is completely manageable with the right support. I want to end my speech with the memory of Lyla and say thank you to John and Emma for their efforts. I say to everyone: please remember those four Ts—“thirst”, “toilet”, “thin” and “tiredness”.