Oral Answers to Questions

Tom Rutland Excerpts

Tuesday 14th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Mrs Hodgson]

I thank the hon. Lady for her good wishes. She may be aware that on 19 January, the Secretary of State met Jesy Nelson and Giles Lomax, the CEO of the charity SMA UK, to discuss the very issue of newborn screening for SMA. The NHS is planning an in-service evaluation offering SMA screening to newborn babies in England. The ISE is being brought forward to October 2026—it was originally planned for January 2027—so there will be more information to follow in October.

[Tom Rutland (East Worthing and Shoreham) (Lab)]

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

[Samantha Niblett (South Derbyshire) (Lab)]

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

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

We inherited from the Conservatives an NHS facing the worst crisis in its history, with waiting lists at a record 7.6 million and public satisfaction at record lows. This Labour Government are getting the NHS back on its feet and making it fit for the future. We have delivered record numbers of appointments, tests and surgeries. Since we took office, waiting lists have been down to the lowest level in nearly three and a half years, and we are driving modernisation through our 10-year plan. Lots has been done, but there is so much more to do with a Labour Government.

[Tom Rutland]

Waiting lists at my local acute trust are down by more than 20,000 since the general election, which I welcome, but musculoskeletal waits remain a challenge in Sussex, with the Sussex MSK service holding about 10% of NHS England’s overall MSK waiting list. What more can be done to improve the performance of the service and get my constituents off the waiting list, back to health and back to work?

[Wes Streeting]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for all the work he is doing, including with our Labour team in Worthing, to improve the health of people across his constituency. I congratulate staff at University Hospitals Sussex on the progress that they have made in bringing waiting lists down. To help them to go further, I am delighted to announce that my hon. Friend’s local community diagnostic centre in Southlands hospital will benefit from a new multimillion-pound MRI scanner to drive down waiting times, including for MSK patients. We are combining investment with modernisation to send crack teams of top clinicians to MSK community services, drive down waiting times and improve outcomes. That is the difference that a Labour Government make.