MP wins praise for speech on NHS conditions

WARRINGTON North MP Helen Jones has won praise from doctors for a House of Commons speech on contracts and conditions in the NHS.
Ms Jones, chairman of the newly formed Selection Committee on petitions, opened the debate on the first petition to reach the debate stage under the new system of dealing with e-petitions.
One doctor tweeted: “If you want to read something that will make you feel like ‘somebody’ in parliament understands – read @HelenJonesMP speech 14th Sept.”
The MP told the Commons that morale among NHS staff was poor.
She said: “ A&E departments are in crisis and missed waiting time targets for the whole of last winter. GP services are struggling to cope, and patients find it harder and harder to get appointments.
“Last year, the deficit across trusts was nearly £1 billion; this year, that is predicted to double.”
“Yet despite all that, NHS staff work miracles every day. Who could not be proud of some of the achievements of our surgeons? Who could sit in an A&E department seeing the endless patience of NHS staff, and not be grateful to them?
“Who could watch paramedics dealing with an accident or reassuring a frail and confused elderly patient and not be ever grateful for our NHS?”
The MP highlighted the fact that the £20 billion cuts to the NHS announced by the previous coalition government was now due to rise to £30 billion by the end of this parliament and that the NHS was struggling to cope with fewer and fewer resources but more and more patients.
She said: “If there are fewer and fewer nurses in our hospitals – in particular, employment in the most senior grades is down by 3 per cent – and we are spending millions on agency staff, something is going badly wrong.
“Hospitals are being forced to recruit nurses from abroad or spend on agency staff when we have thousands of people in this country who want to train as nurses but simply cannot get the training places that are available.  That is a false economy – the only people benefiting from the
current situation are the companies that supply agency staff.
“Indeed, one,  Independent Clinical Services, saw its profits more than double, from £6.2 million in 2010 to £16.5 million in 2013.
“In other words, what the government have done is a textbook example of a false economy.”
Speaking about the decrease in GP numbers in Warrington,  the MP said: “We have fewer GPs than we had in 2010. Nationally, the number of unfilled GP posts quadrupled in the three years from 2010 to 2013.  When there are not enough GPs to ensure timely access to appointments on weekdays,  it is difficult to see how the Government are going to extend GPs’ working hours without recruiting more staff.  If the Government intend to proceed without recruiting more staff,  that will simply increase the pressures on the staff working already, leading to more burn-out, and it will be a downward spiral.  We already know that many GPs are thinking of retiring early.”
Ms Jones called on the government to make clear what services will run and what staffing arrangements will be put in place, saying: “They can put more doctors on the ward, but that will be useless without the back-up staff.  It is not hospital doctors, GPs, nurses, lab technicians or cleaners who have caused staff shortages in the NHS.
“They are not the people requiring huge cuts in our hospitals and other services.  Unless the government are prepared to recruit more nurses, doctors and ancillary staff, more and more pressure will be put on existing staff, who will suffer burnout. It will be a downward spiral.”
The response to the speech from the medical profession was one of overwhelming praise.  A junior doctor said: “Thank you for intelligent debate and standing up for NHS staff and patients.”
An emergency medicine speciality trainee said: ““Thank you for so passionately and eloquently standing up for doctors. We were all
talking about you today.”
A GP commented: “Thank you for supporting our profession and the NHS. You truly understand the fundamental issues. Just brilliant.”