National Maternity and Neonatal Investigation

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 30th June 2026 Commons Chamber

[James Murray]

My hon. Friend is right to point to the importance of the Hillsborough law, because it will enable greater accountability and justice across society, as well as being crucial for future maternity investigations. That is why one of the commitments I made last week following Donna Ockenden’s report was to apply the duty of candour, which the Hillsborough law will enable, to all future maternity investigations, so that never again can we have a situation where senior clinical leaders choose not to participate and choose to avoid accountability.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

A retired paediatrician and constituent told me recently that after giving 50 years’ service to the children of the NHS, she was devastated by the treatment of mothers and babies and loyal staff, whose concerns are routinely ignored, as when Yeovil’s specialist baby unit was recently closed without notice. While I welcome the Government’s commitment to a new maternity commissioner, will the Secretary of State set out how the commissioner will intervene in a trust like Somerset, rather than simply reporting on failures after harm has been caused?

[James Murray]

In the coming two weeks, I will be meeting the national taskforce, which I chair, to establish the scope and role of the new national maternity commissioner. I want to make sure that that is agreed with the taskforce. The taskforce will produce the action plan, which the commissioner will help to implement. I want to ensure that this is all done with the same principles in mind.

The hon. Lady also raised an important point about not only mothers being ignored, which they are far too often, but staff being ignored. A few Members have made that point today, and it bears repeating. We know that 9,000 staff contributed to Baroness Amos’s report, which underlines the fact that they want a better maternity service, too.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 14th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

6. How many urgent dental appointments have been provided since 1 April 2025.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

11. How many urgent dental appointments have been provided since 1 April 2025.

[The Minister for Care (Stephen Kinnock)]

Since July 2024, we have been rebuilding a broken NHS dentistry system. We have delivered 1.8 million more treatments and reduced the underspend from £392 million to just £36 million, maximising the treatment provided for taxpayers’ money. Last year, we asked integrated care boards to commission additional urgent appointments, and the data will be published in August. Following advice from the chief dental officer, we broadened the scope of those appointments so that more patients could benefit.

--- Later in debate ---

[Stephen Kinnock]

I am encouraged by the fact that, in the hon. Gentleman’s Humber and North Yorkshire ICB area, 52,795 more NHS dental treatments were delivered between April and October 2025 compared with the same period before the election, so some progress is being made, but more must be achieved. Long-term contract reform will enable the resolution of some of the funding issues that he mentions—that is ongoing work—and we will come forward in the summer with a public consultation on delivering fundamental reform to the dentistry contract.

[Sarah Dyke]

A constituent from Ilchester contacted me recently about their 14-year-old daughter, who is suffering from a painful dental abscess. Despite trying over several months to get treatment, she has been unable to access the treatment that she so desperately needs. Given that the Government have provided only 100,000 of the 700,000 extra urgent appointments that were promised, will the Minister provide a detailed breakdown of how many of the additional 1.8 million NHS dental appointments have been urgent appointments, as opposed to routine check-ups?

[Stephen Kinnock]

We will publish those data and statistics in August, in the usual way, but I can tell the hon. Lady that we have created a safety net for urgent dental care. Following the reforms that kicked in on 1 April this year, there is now a requirement for all NHS dentists to deliver 8.2% of their contract in urgent care. We absolutely recognise that more needs to be done in cases such as that of her constituent, and that is what we are focused on with fundamental dentistry contract reform.

Budget Resolutions

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd December 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

On neighbourhood health plans, St Dunstan’s House health and wellbeing centre and West Mendip primary care network are seeking to put together a preventive approach to crime, social and mental health issues in the Glastonbury area. Does my hon. Friend agree that this innovative, community-based project should be included in the second wave of neighbourhood health scheme applications?

[Helen Morgan]

We would all welcome that kind of innovative, community-led approach to improve local health services across the country.

The commitment to set up 250 neighbourhood health centres in communities by 2025 is clearly a welcome step, but there are 543 constituencies in England, so many communities will remain under-served. For example, my own constituency of North Shropshire is part of the pilot for neighbourhood health centres, for which we are grateful, but the numbers indicate that there may be only one neighbourhood health centre, although the constituency has five market towns, spread over a large distance and with different catchment areas. It is not one neighbourhood. Investment in our general practices is essential to ensure that people can continue to access primary care when they need it.

Neighbourhood health is not just about buildings—it is about how teams operate—but when so many local practices are constrained by the physical space in which they must work, buildings are an important part of the puzzle. There is a danger that rural and coastal communities continue to remain under-served and isolated, unable to access services that may be many miles away and only reachable by private car.

Oral Answers to Questions

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 25th November 2025 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We are on topical questions. The Prime Minister is in the Chamber. If you do not want Members to get in, please tell me; it would be easier.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

T7. In Somerset, only 41% of children have seen an NHS dentist in the past two years, which is well below the national average. Ben from Somerton is a single parent of four children. He lives in an NHS dental desert and worries about the health of his children’s teeth. There is no way he can pay for private dental care, as he can barely afford to pay for his children’s food. Ahead of the Budget tomorrow, can the Minister confirm what action he is taking?

[Stephen Kinnock]

We have the interim reforms, and our response on those will be published very soon. We are working on the long-term reform of the NHS dentistry contract with the British Dental Association, and I would be happy to keep the hon. Lady updated on our progress.

Jhoots Pharmacy

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 15th October 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

Jhoots Pharmacy has revealed the severe financial strain facing community pharmacies. The towns of Glastonbury and Bruton are home to fantastic independent pharmacies, continuing to serve their communities despite more than half of pharmacy owners losing money last year. How will the Government ensure that the regulatory framework is robust so that community pharmacy services in rural areas can remain resilient and accessible?

[Stephen Kinnock]

The hon. Member is right: this is about making the regulatory framework more robust. As I have pointed out, it is robust on pharmacists, on technicians and on pharmacy premises, but it is simply not strong enough when it comes to pharmacy business owners. The unprecedented case of Jhoots is throwing that into sharp relief. That is what we are working on at pace. I will be happy to update her once we have some clear progress on the plan and strategy to beef up the regulatory framework to ensure that this kind of thing can never happen again.

Yeovil Hospital: Maternity Unit

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

I thank the Minister and my hon. Friend the Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) for allowing me to speak, and I thank my hon. Friend for securing this important debate. The closure of Yeovil special baby unit and maternity unit has shocked many of my residents across Glastonbury and Somerton, as it did my hon. Friend. After the announcement, I immediately set up a petition to gather evidence of the strength of feeling regarding these vital services. Since then, I have been inundated with responses.

I begin by echoing my hon. Friend’s sentiments in thanking the staff at Yeovil for their incredible work and care. Rob from Limington, a resident in my constituency, told me that his family would not be a family without the work of Yeovil staff. That is a compelling piece of information. Somerset NHS foundation trust made the decision following a clinical assessment that services could not continue operating safely. That is a damning indictment.

[Jim Shannon (Strangford) (DUP)]

I commend the hon. Lady and the hon. Member for Yeovil (Adam Dance) on their campaign. To reinforce the point evidentially on the closure of Yeovil hospital maternity unit, the impact on the community will be great; it happened to me at Ards hospital, where GP services were overrun with the work that had to be done. Midwives complained that the impact on the community was great, and the effect was not just on the maternity unit, but on NHS services overall.

[Sarah Dyke]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right that the impact is not just within the county, but causes a huge knock-on effect on wider services.

The decision is a damning indictment of how our health services have been treated, and how they have been run into the ground following the Conservatives’ regular cuts. Residents in Glastonbury and Somerton are devastated, and are concerned that this six-month temporary closure could then become permanent. I have had many examples of residents contacting me, including Ben. He and his wife are from Martock, and are expecting their first child in September. They have planned a home birth with support from the Yeovil midwifery team. They can still access those services, but if complications arise, they will no longer be able to rely on Yeovil hospital services, which are only a 15-minute drive away. They will have to go a lot further, driving at least 45 minutes to access Taunton, Royal United hospital, Dorchester or Salisbury. There are so many unanswered questions, especially on how the closure will affect the capacity of Taunton’s Musgrove Park hospital, or Dorchester or Bath’s maternity units.

We need clarity now. Our residents deserve that. Will the Minister give us and our constituents that clarity, so that those who are looking forward to starting a new family or who are growing their family can know that the journey through their pregnancy will be safe and that they will have a family beyond that?

--- Later in debate ---

[Karin Smyth]

I am not aware of the operational details of how the decision was communicated, but I am happy to come back to that. As I have said, when decisions are made for reasons of safety—which is of primary importance—sometimes staff will not be able to be consulted in the usual way. Of course, some staff will not be working at a given time, or may be on holiday, and organisations have to take particular measures to inform staff. I appreciate that that is very disruptive and personally distressing for staff who have been working in a unit and need to know where to go, but emergency situations sometimes necessitate things not being done as robustly as might be desired.

Local leaders have assured me that this closure is not intended to be permanent—that is very important for hon. Members and their constituents to understand. The trust is committed to reviewing the position in three and six months, and following the three-month review, Somerset ICB will provide an update in September. Finally, once a decision is made, any permanent change would need to be based on clear evidence of better outcomes for patients.

On the wider issue that has been raised this evening, as hon. Members will be aware, the Government’s position is that changes to NHS services should always be locally led and clinically evidenced. Any decision about the next steps for the neonatal and maternity services at Yeovil hospital should be taken by the local NHS, with support from the Care Quality Commission. I understand that work is currently under way to mitigate the impact of the closure and move towards safe operation of services. The NHS England South West regional team is working with the trust and the ICB to mitigate the risk of the closure and ensure that the wider systems work together to provide safe services. The trust is working closely with neighbouring hospitals in Bath, Salisbury, Poole, Dorchester and Exeter to ensure sufficient capacity, which should provide assurance to local people.

Regional team clinical leaders have attended a rapid quality review meeting with ICB and trust clinical leaders, and work continues on mitigating the risks that have been identified. I have been assured that Somerset ICB will monitor progress against improvement plans, formally noting any new or emerging risks and actions required. It will also be monitoring the impact on Musgrove Park maternity unit. I understand that Somerset NHS foundation trust and Somerset ICB have also written to the hon. Member for Yeovil since the closure and that there is due to be a call with local MPs tomorrow. I think that is good progress; as I said to representatives of the trust when I met them, I commend that way of operating with local Members of Parliament. I hope it is helpful in having detailed conversations locally to reassure hon. Members and—more importantly, if I may say so —their constituents at what I appreciate is a really difficult time for women who are either due to give birth, or are thinking about starting a family.

We are committed to tackling staffing challenges that the NHS faces, such as this one. For the maternity workforce, NHS England is undertaking a programme of targeted retention work for midwives. This includes a midwife retention self-assessment tool, a mentoring scheme, strengthened advice and support on pensions, and flexible retirement options.

NHS England has also invested in unit-based retention leaders, who focus on retention and give pastoral support to midwives. This initiative, alongside investment in workforce capacity, has seen a reduction in the number of vacancies and in leaver and turnover rates. Maternity care remains a top priority for providers, as is demonstrated in the planning guidance, in which the NHS was instructed to improve safety in maternity and neonatal services as a priority.

I know that there is concern in Somerset more widely about how this change will affect services in the local area. Let me reassure Members that NHS Somerset is committed to investing in local services for both hospitals there. That includes a commitment to a fully functioning district general hospital in Yeovil. The Yeovil diagnostic centre, which is due to open later this year, will be a modern, three-storey, state-of-the-art centre based at Yeovil district hospital. It will have the capacity to deliver an additional 70,000 diagnostic tests and out-patient appointments each year and to be open seven days a week, providing radiology, endoscopy and cardiology services, audiology tests and out-patient appointments.

I thank the hon. Member for Yeovil again for raising this important issue. I know that he and his colleagues will keep a close eye on progress. I hope that I have responded to his immediate concerns tonight, and I will of course write to him and other Members shortly in response to their letter of 19 May.

[Sarah Dyke]

May I raise the issue of maternity services at Musgrove Park hospital, which will be taking on a number of patients? An upgrade that was due has now been pushed back to the mid-2030s. At present, maternity services are provided in a 1940s dormitory-style building. Does that really show mothers-to-be that their needs are being prioritised?

[Karin Smyth]

I am of course aware of that, because I lead on the new hospital programme. The Government are committed to a clear timetable for the programme, which includes Musgrove Park. In our Budget last autumn, we announced decisions—which the hon. Lady and her colleagues did not support—involving capital plans and ensuring that that programme is now on a financial footing that it was not on previously.

I am confident that the local NHS is aware of the impact of this change and continues to work hard to improve the situation. Any change in NHS services must be made with the utmost sensitivity to local views, while also prioritising safety. I know that Members will continue to monitor this issue, and I will ensure that they receive a response to the letter of 19 May.

Question put and agreed to.

Dementia Care

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd June 2025 Commons Chamber

[Claire Young (Thornbury and Yate) (LD)]

Everyone deserves high-quality care when they need it—that is particularly the case for those with dementia, who often have some of the most complex needs—but the sad reality is that social care services in this country are in crisis. The disease has a huge impact not only on the patients, but on their family and friends as they struggle to care for them.

Richard wrote to me about his experience of being a full-time carer for his wife of 55 years. She has ataxia, compounded by dementia. She is losing her ability to walk or talk, write or use the phone, or follow simple instructions, and Richard has to be with her 24/7 to ensure her safety. The daily routine starts with getting his wife out of bed; transporting her to the bathroom; helping her with the toilet; getting her into the shower and then getting in the shower to shower her; helping her clean her teeth; getting her back to the bedroom to dry her hair and dress her; taking her downstairs via their self-funded stairlift; getting her into a wheelchair to transport her to the dining table for breakfast; and then taking her back to the lounge. She may sleep for a little bit, but sooner or later there will be a call for help to go to the toilet, so it is back into the wheelchair, back on the stairlift and back on the toilet. Richard will clean and dress her, and then she will go back on the stairlift, back into the wheelchair and back into the lounge, where the whole palaver will repeat after five minutes, as she has forgotten that she has already been to the toilet and cannot be convinced otherwise.

That is just one small part of a day, and it sounds relentless. Owing to a recent back injury, Richard has had to employ a carer for two mornings a week to help. He wants to care for his wife as long as he can, but one day he may have to move her to a nursing home, and that worries him. He reckons it will cost approximately £1,800 per week and rising due to the increase in national insurance, and he is now worried that in pandering to populism on immigration, the Government may make it even harder to recruit carers. He says:

“Once again, it is the least fortunate and needy of us who will bear the cost.”

Another constituent wrote:

“When my wife was first diagnosed with Alzheimer’s in 2019, we were given a couple of booklets and told to prepare for the inevitable.”

He went on to explain that for a couple of years, including during the covid lockdown, they saw no one apart from the occasional surgery visit, until a crisis in 2023 led to the community mental health team being involved. For a while, his wife got a fair amount of support, but when the mental health team deemed her stabilised, that support was withdrawn, leading to another crisis in January 2024. He is very worried that the whole cycle will play out again and again.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

My hon. Friend reminds me of a conversation that I had with William, a constituent from High Ham who has been caring for his wife, who has had Alzheimer’s for many years. He has relied on the intensive dementia support team in Yeovil, but the service has recently been reorganised. As a result, it has become quite fragmented across Somerset and there is no central contact or clear structure. There are incomplete records, leaving some carers adrift. Does my hon. Friend agree that streamlining dementia care services is vital to ensure clarity and co-ordination for carers?

--- Later in debate ---

[Dr Danny Chambers (Winchester) (LD)]

I thank my hon. Friend the Member for South Devon (Caroline Voaden) for securing this important debate. Listening to the stories from Members on all sides of the House, it is clear that this is not simply a political debate; it is deeply personal to pretty much everyone here.

My father had dementia. He was a typical Irish farmer; he was very strong-willed, physically tough and fiercely independent, and he was used to working all hours of the day. Watching that man slip away, becoming increasingly confused, anxious and very often unreasonably angry, was one of the most heartbreaking experiences of my life. I know I am not alone in experiencing that, as we have heard very similar stories.

Many Members have said that with dementia we lose the person we love twice—first slowly, piece by piece, and then again at the end. The final loss can feel like a relief, because it is a prolonged bereavement; the grief starts sometimes years before. Dementia is a brutal disease, not just for those who are experiencing it but for those who are caring. For spouses, children and families, it is relentless emotional toil, sleepless nights and endless juggling of tasks.

[Sarah Dyke]

My hon. Friend shares his experience of losing his father. I lost my father in the same way, and he too was a proud farming man. I want to raise an issue from a constituent who contacted me about her father James. He is currently alone in a room in a hospital, and he is scared to mix with other violent dementia patients. He wants to be at home, and the family want him to be at home, but there are barriers in social care in Somerset at the moment. Does my hon. Friend agree that dementia patients should be able to live independently at home, with dignity, and receive the care—

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

Order.

NHS and Care Volunteer Responders Service

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Monday 19th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Karin Smyth]

Well, we could—[Interruption.] Sorry, the hon. Member for Farnham and Bordon (Gregory Stafford) is chuntering from a sedentary position. I partly agree with my hon. Friend. Yes, the Conservatives did run down the NHS and we inherited a broken system, but volunteering has always been a really important part of the NHS and the care system, so I pay tribute to those people who come forward. It is both good for the system and the people they help, and for many individuals. We talked earlier about people feeling disconnected, perhaps as receivers of volunteering, but we know how valuable it is for individuals themselves to be giving and volunteering, and we want to see more of that.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

This closure follows today’s no-notice closure of the special care baby unit and maternity unit at Yeovil district hospital, and comes amidst a crisis in our health services. I take the opportunity to thank the hundreds of NHS volunteers in Glastonbury and Somerton, who give millions of volunteer hours to the NHS, but with NHS trusts implementing staffing freezes to keep afloat, there does not seem to be any consideration of the impact that this closure might have. How will the Government ensure that patients do not lose access to vital support and suffer as a result of these changes?

[Karin Smyth]

The hon. Lady makes an important point: it is important to make sure that people do not suffer from changes and that the impact is minimised. As I said, the programme was not delivering effective value for money, and we think the future system will. We encourage more people to come forward, to increase the sustainability of volunteering in local systems.

Mental Health Bill [Lords]

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

2nd reading
Monday 19th May 2025 Commons Chamber

[Dr Danny Chambers (Winchester) (LD)]

I thank the Secretary of State for introducing this really important Bill, and the Minister for his proactive engagement with us earlier this week. Before I entered Parliament, I was a trustee of the veterinary mental health charity Vetlife, which cares for the mental health of the veterinary profession—I have had to clarify before that it is not a mental health charity for animals with mental health issues. I became a trustee of the charity because my really close friend Sarah, at the age of just 31, when she had her whole life and career ahead of her, took her own life; I took her place as a trustee. Getting the news that I had lost her was one of the most painful experiences of my life. Many hon. Members in the Chamber will have suffered similar experiences with their friends and loved ones.

I speak about Sarah because while we are in this place, we rightly often discuss mental health issues using statistics—we talk about waiting times, workforce shortages and the economic impact—but we must never forget that there are individual lives behind the numbers, and nearly every person in the country is affected in some way. That might be through their own struggles or those of a loved one, or through grief after someone they care about has lost their battle with depression.

To return briefly to statistics, veterinary medicine—the profession I come from—has a suicide rate four times the national average. It is a small profession where everyone knows everyone, and everyone has lost a friend or a colleague to suicide. I share that not just for awareness, but because it reminds us that certain groups are at much higher risk—they are more vulnerable than others—and we should do much more to identify and support them.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

My hon. Friend, as a veterinarian, will know that farmers also suffer with significant mental health issues. My constituents are under immense pressure following the family farm tax and the sudden closure of the sustainable farming incentive. Alongside that, they work extremely long hours, and the unpredictability of farm work means that it is more difficult for them to access mental health support and doctors’ appointments. Does he agree that we should introduce regular mental health MOT checks at key points in people’s lives—when they are most vulnerable to mental ill health—particularly for those in rural areas where there are barriers to accessing support?

[Dr Chambers]

My hon. Friend will not be surprised that I agree with her; she may as well have read the next bit of my speech. She is completely right. Farmers, those working in agriculture, military veterans and their families, mothers in the first year after childbirth, people living in poverty and the LGBTQ+ community are just a few of the groups that we know are at heightened risk.

We already take a proactive approach when it comes to physical health; we have targeted cancer screenings for at-risk demographics. We should take the same approach to mental health. That is why the Liberal Democrats have long called for properly resourced community mental health hubs, which could reach people before they reached crisis point. We are also calling, as my hon. Friend just did, for regular mental health check-ups at key life stages—for example, when someone has just given birth or just been discharged from the Army.

Hospitals

Sarah Dyke Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd April 2025 Commons Chamber

[Freddie van Mierlo (Henley and Thame) (LD)]

Hospitals matter to everyone, but hospitals falling apart help no one—not patients, not staff and not the economy. The Government have called the NHS “broken”. They rightly blamed the Conservatives, and criticised the NHS’s management under their leadership, so why are the Government now making the same mistakes?

Under the revised new hospital programme, the building of the Royal Berkshire hospital will not commence for another decade. There is little prospect of a new Royal Berkshire to serve the communities of Henley, Reading, Newbury, Bracknell and Windsor until the 2040s. Doctors who have worked in the NHS for over 30 years believe that they will never work in modern buildings. The cancer centre alone is 164 years old.

[Sarah Dyke (Glastonbury and Somerton) (LD)]

My hon. Friend talks of members of staff with long service. A former nurse with 40 years’ experience in the NHS recently contacted me. She took her husband, who has complex needs, into hospital, as he had a hand infection, and they were forced to wait for over 12 hours in a tiny cubicle with no ventilation. It pained me to hear that story. She worked so hard for the NHS, which she felt was down on its knees. Does my hon. Friend agree that this is a damning indictment of the state of our hospitals, and that we urgently need to pursue a major 10-year capital investment programme to get them back up to speed?

[Freddie van Mierlo]

My hon. Friend is right to point out the impact of the state of the NHS on the brilliant people who work there. My sister is a nurse in the Royal Preston hospital, and she tells me just how hard it is to walk past people who are being cared for in corridors. Every week at the Royal Berkshire, an operation is cancelled due to power cuts, water supply issues, broken lifts or malfunctioning temperature controls. Those are lost appointments and lost efficiency for the NHS. Floods and sinkholes plague the foundations of the Royal Berkshire hospital, which now requires relocation, and identified suitable sites are set to be put on the market at the end of this year. Further inaction by the Government will mean that those carefully laid plans and that funding will amount to nothing.

There are also hospitals that were never considered for the programme, as my hon. Friend the Member for Oxford West and Abingdon (Layla Moran) pointed out. I recently visited the Warneford hospital in Oxford, which gives in-patient care to patients with severe mental health conditions, including schizophrenia, personality disorders and psychosis. I was shocked by the conditions that patients live in. They are in tight spaces in dark rooms, and the infrastructure is Georgian. There were rooms that reminded me of recent visits to HMP Huntercombe. I said that rather nervously to the member of staff showing me around, worried that I might offend them. They gently held my arm and said, “Freddie, why do you think we showed you these rooms?”

Staff told me that cramped conditions make it difficult to take breaks during the day. One worker showed me their windowless cupboard office—hardly great for their own mental health. Staff also told me how working in Georgian buildings impacts the quality of their work. Sight lines in common rooms are obstructed by pillars; rooms are difficult to heat; and security is difficult to maintain. A new Warneford would cost a fraction of the price of a physical health hospital, and the Government promised to put mental health on the same footing as physical health, so why does the revised new hospital programme not include a single mental health facility?

Both the Warneford and the Royal Berkshire have been devastated by the Government’s lack of foresight. The cuts to hospital spending are a decision made to save money, but that is a false economy. Over the next 10 years, repairs to the Royal Berkshire hospital are projected to cost £400 million—a quarter of the cost of a new hospital. Add to that the many other neglected hospitals, and the loss is unthinkable. Proper investment in modern infrastructure is needed now.

In my constituency we have the Townlands Memorial hospital, which shows how good the NHS can be with modern infrastructure. Anyone who receives care there, whether through the Royal Berkshire NHS foundation trust or the Oxford Health NHS foundation trust, sings its praises. It hosts over 30 specialities and plans to expand further. Let us give our hospitals the chance to excel.