FIGHTING FOR THE LOCAL HEALTH SERVICE

Recently, North Staffordshire MPs met staff from the North Staffs Hospital, the NHS and trade unions who traveled to London to lobby MPs and government as part of the NHS Together lobby of Parliament.

I was pleased to be able to spend time with the representatives and to hear from them first hand about how they are affected by the changes which are currently being made.

The background to this is a programme of huge investment in the NHS.  This Government has trebled the Health budget in cash terms from 1996/7 to 2007/8. This has paid for over 85,000 more nurses and over 32,000 more doctors. 156 new hospitals have been built or are on their way, which has been the largest hospital building project since NHS began. Waiting lists have fallen dramatically and are at record lows. It’s also important to remember that, in general, people have confidence in the care the NHS will provide. The latest ICM poll for the Guardian showed that most people believe their care in NHS would be excellent. The vast majority of people that I meet say their family and friends have had a good experience of the NHS.

But the reality for us in North Staffordshire is that there are deficits that the Government has insisted are brought under control. As a result, the Hospital Trust has to balance its books. In these circumstances the hospital is more than ever reliant on the goodwill of staff and unions to find a way of working together to turn things round. The representatives I met at Westminster Central Hall were full of concern and common sense and want very much to be a part of the solution.

It is ironic that a government that invested more than any other government in the history of the NHS health and which has finally succeeded in bringing down waiting lists, is now requiring the Hospital Trust to make savings over a comparatively short period of time.

The staff representatives that I have spoken to welcome the improved working practices that benefit patients and they welcome Agenda for Change which has brought better pay for the highly committed workforce. The challenge for us is to make sure that the pace of change now forced on us does not undermine the improvements we have brought about.

I am not prepared to see the NHS take one step back even if it has already taken three steps forward. The positive thing which came out of the lobby is that staff representatives and local MPs share a commitment to finding a way forward that maintains and builds on the improvements in the NHS that we need.

If you live in Stoke-on-Trent North and would like to know more about what I am doing to help the NHS locally, then please be in touch.