Campaign Launch on Bradshawgate

There was a fantastic turnout for my campaign launch as I seek re-election in the General Election to be held on Thursday, 7th May and bid to keep Leigh a Labour seat in Parliament.

I was joined by Councillors and Labour Party members from across the Leigh area and it was great to meet local people to talk about Labour's better plan for Leigh and the country.

It has been a privilege to be the Member of Parliament for Leigh since 2001.

This election is one of the most important general elections there has been in modern times. Over the past five years we have seen living standards decline as wages have stagnated. Families will end up worse off at the end of this Parliament this year than they were at the start in 2010.

A Labour government elected in May will have the right priorities and will take the decisions necessary to improve the lives of people across Leigh and the country - we will reform the energy market, freeze gas and electricity bills until 2017, impose a Mansion tax on the most expensive homes, and use those funds to build an NHS with the time to care. This election is about which direction the UK will take, and who will form the next Government of the UK – and if people want a Labour Government, the only certain way to achieve that is by voting Labour on 7 May.

Are you registered to vote. It only takes a few minutes and can be done online at the link here. If you wish to vote by post you can download a form here.

Government waters down critical children’s mental health report

Today’s report on mental health services for children and young people, published by the Department of Health, fails to include key criticisms of the Government’s record made in the original copy.

The copy of the original report that emerged last month saw expert authors criticise the Government for its reductions in funding and the impact on services and waiting times.

“Since 2011 there has been a reduction in funding and consequent reduction in service provision, and an increase in waiting times; […]. Meanwhile, CAMHS providers report increased demand in terms of the number and complexity of referrals combined with cuts in CAMHS budgets."

However, the same paragraph today had become:

“Since 2011, our best evidence is that these difficulties are the result of financial constraints accompanied by rising demand."

Similarly, the original report references a “Lack of parity in funding decisions” – between mental health and physical health – but this criticism has been removed.

Only ten days ago it emerged that the Department of Health is also failing to publish a damning report on its management of the NHS by Lord Stuart Rose. Labour wrote to Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt to call for its immediate publication, but the Secretary of State has not responded.

This Government has become so desperate to run from its NHS record that they are now removing damaging criticisms from official reports. It is outrageous behaviour from a Government to seek to silence expert critics.

David Cameron and Nick Clegg cannot hide from the fact that the children’s mental health budget has been cut in real terms over this Parliament and the NHS has lost 3,300 specialist mental health nurses and 1,500 mental health beds.

They’ve left highly vulnerable children without the support they need and being shunted up and down the motorways in search of crisis beds. Many children have been left hundreds of miles from their home and families and that is a scandal that has got to end.

The NHS as we know it can’t survive another five years of the Tories’ failing plan. Labour has a better plan to put mental health at the heart of the NHS by integrating mental health, physical health and social care into one service. We will invest an extra £2.5 billion each year in the NHS, increase the proportion of the mental health budget spent on children and recruit 20,000 more nurses, including mental health specialists.

Getting the best NHS deal for Greater Manchester

There must be an election coming.  After five years of making savage cuts to council budgets, and five years of fragmenting and privatising, George Osborne has waited until five weeks before this Parliament ends to endorse Labour’s plan to integrate the NHS and social care.

We can all speculate about the reasons for his Road to Damascus-style conversion and have every right to be suspicious of the real reasons behind the rushed timetable unveiled this week. But the great thing about our political leaders in Greater Manchester is that they are always more interested in getting the best deal for our people than playing party politics. That’s what sets them apart from others and means they get so much done.

Unlike Mr Osborne, they are not sudden converts to NHS and care integration. So they have my full support in pushing for the best deal from whichever Government is in power.

Osborne’s plans could allow Greater Manchester to get on with the job of delivering Labour’s policy of Whole Person Care. But, before any final deal is signed, there are major questions that the Chancellor needs to answer.

Firstly, how much money is actually on offer and will it be enough?

On Tuesday, this paper revealed huge deficits in Greater Manchester’s hospitals after years of council budget cuts too. And we know that pressure is growing as our population gets older. We all need to be vigilant against the danger that this Government is only offering to devolve a funding crisis and then blame us when things get worse.

This raises my second question: what will happen if the funding is insufficient? Will our hospitals be left to sink or swim or will we continue to get backing from the rest of the NHS?

These questions are highly relevant. Last September in Manchester, Ed Miliband committed to the extra £2.5 billion year that the NHS needs. This is a promise Mr Osborne has failed to match.

My third worry is whether these proposals would mean yet another reorganisation for Greater Manchester’s NHS - only two years after the last one. It would be the very last thing that we need, wasting time and money.

Fourthly, will Greater Manchester still be stuck with the Tory competition agenda after devolution – or does this give us an escape route? This is important as mandatory tendering is the biggest obstacle to integration and we can only succeed if it is removed.

If George Osborne can provide proper answers in all of these areas, then I believe his package could help us deliver Labour’s health and care policy. But this is not the deal that I would be offering to Greater Manchester if I am Health Secretary in ten weeks’ time. I believe I can offer a much better one.

Firstly, Labour will be devolving more money to Greater Manchester’s NHS and councils – raised by our new Mansions Tax – allowing it to build an NHS that starts in people’s homes, looks after them there and gets the rid of the culture of 15-minute care visits. There will be money for the extra nurses, GPs, homecare workers and midwives that we need.

Secondly, rather than create new bureaucracies, I will move quickly to devolve more power to our councils and councillors. Integration needs to be led at a local level – as we are already seeing in Salford, Stockport and Wigan.

Thirdly, I will waste no time in repealing George Osborne’s Health & Social Care Act which has foisted a toxic culture of competition on the NHS. This has led to the privatisation of part of our ambulance service in Greater Manchester – without a single community or council be asked their view or giving their approval.

Under my deal, the people of Greater Manchester will have full power to protect the public NHS and prevent future privatisation.

So the good news is, at the end of a fast-moving week, we can be confident that devolution and integration are coming and that Greater Manchester could have the chance to deliver Labour’s NHS policy whichever government is in power after May.

After all the damage that Mr Osborne and his Tory and Lib Dem allies have inflicted on our NHS in Greater Manchester, this seems like the least he should be doing for us.

This article appeared in a recent edition of The Manchester Evening News.

Research by the Nursing Times showing a high turnover of nurses recruited from abroad

I warned David Cameron it would be a false economy to cut nurse training places and that is proved by expensive recruitment from overseas and the unprecedented use of agency nurses. Labour plans to bring through a new generation of home-grown nurses by training a further 10,000 above current levels in the next Parliament.

David Cameron has left the NHS seriously short of the nurses it needs – he should match our plans to invest an extra £2.5 billion to recruit 20,000 nurses and 8,000 GPs.

Labour will tackle scandal of cancer patients denied life-saving treatment

Today, I have announced a new cancer strategy to be published within six months of a Labour Government and a plan to tackle ageism in cancer treatment.

Labour will create a new annual Cancer Treatments Fund to improve access not just to the latest drugs but also to the latest forms of radiotherapy and surgery that are too often not available for thousands of people with cancer.

In a speech to the Britain Against Cancer conference, I commited the next Labour Government to creating a fund that starts in April 2016, when the Cancer Drugs Fund expires.

The current fund, which only pays for drugs, will come to an end in March 2016. The new annual fund would build on existing provision, but expand the scope of extra investment to improve access not just to drugs but also to radiotherapy and surgery - the two forms of treatment that are responsible for nine in 10 cases where cancer is cured.

In the move to the new fund, Labour would also guarantee that any patient in receipt of a drug from the Cancer Drugs Fund would continue to be offered that drug.

The new £330 million Fund will be created by adding £50m from the pharmaceutical industry rebate to the £280m-a-year Cancer Drugs Fund budget. Cancer experts will be consulted on the allocation of the resource and the best mechanisms for delivering it.

Figures from Cancer Research UK show that while half of radiotherapy patients should receive Intensity-modulated Radiotherapy (IMRT), it is currently only received by a third. The number of patients receiving Stereotactic Ablative Radiotherapy (SABR), which treats lung and other cancers over a shorter length of time, fell by 10 per cent last year. Meanwhile, 124 patients were sent abroad to receive Proton Beam therapy last year as the NHS will not be able to deliver it until 2018.

A Labour Government will also publish a new cancer strategy within six months of the election. Separately, the Government will commission Cancer Research UK, the Royal College of Surgeons and other key stakeholders to lead a programme of work to make recommendations on addressing the under-treatment of older cancer patients.

The new Fund forms part of Labour’s 10-year plan to be the best in Europe on cancer survival and save up to 10,000 lives a year. It builds on Ed Miliband’s commitment earlier this year to guarantee patients a test and result within a week where cancer is suspected.

A Labour Government will also support Teenage Cancer Trust’s programme of awareness sessions on cancer, currently available in around 500 schools, and roll it out to the rest of the country.

My goal is to make the NHS the best health service in the world for the treatment of cancer. We will only achieve that if we give patients access to the most effective forms of treatment, including advanced radiotherapy.

The problem with cancer policy under the current Government is that it prioritises one form of cancer treatment over others and places one group of patients ahead of another. This is indefensible when we know surgery and radiotherapy are responsible for nine in ten cases where cancer is cured. It is not right that 40,000 people every year who could benefit from radiotherapy are missing out.

This is why Labour will build on the benefits of the Cancer Drugs Fund but extend the principles of improving access and supporting innovation to all forms of cancer treatment and all cancer patients.”

Too many young people are leaving education without knowing some of the basics about cancer and how to look out for the warning signs. Every young person should, as part of their education, have the opportunity to learn more and know where to go if they are worried. Teenage Cancer Trust is doing brilliant work in this area and with a bit more support from Government we can make their sessions available to every school in the country.

At the other end of the spectrum, there is evidence that too many older people are missing out on effective treatments. We need to eradicate any suggestion of ageism and the under-treatment that can result. That’s why the next Labour Government will launch an immediate programme of work led by the Royal College of Surgeons and Cancer Research UK to understand what’s happening in practice and make recommendations on tackling under-treatment.

My letter to David Cameron

Dear Prime Minister,

At Prime Minister’s Questions today Ed Miliband raised the serious issue of the English NHS and its increasingly precarious position after four years of this Conservative Government. Asked five questions about the English NHS, you failed to answer.

You were asked the following questions:

• Why 16 leading health organisations representing doctors, nurses and patients are warning that health and social care services in England are “at breaking point”. You had no answer to their warnings about what's happening to the NHS on your watch. 
• You were asked to confirm that in England we have the highest waiting lists for six years, the highest number of people waiting more than four hours in A&E for 10 years, the cancer treatment target missed for the first time ever and millions of people can’t get to see their GP. You had nothing to say on these facts which concern people across England.
• You were asked about your top-down reorganisation of the NHS, which has wasted £3 billion. You didn't say whether you agree with a Cabinet colleague that it was a huge mistake.
• You were asked about the warnings of the Conservative chair of the Health Select Committee about your funding plans and charging in the NHS. You had no answer to her views.
• You were asked to support the NHS by funding one-week cancer testing with a levy on the tobacco companies and you wouldn't explain why you refuse to do so. 

These are serious issues which are of great concern to the public. On all of them you provided no answers. Instead you attempted to run away from your record on the NHS by launching another attack on the NHS in Wales.

The country and the NHS deserve better. Rather than indulging in smears and diversionary tactics you would be better advised to spend your time addressing the fact that the NHS is at breaking point under your Government.

As you yourself said in the aftermath of the Scottish referendum, “the millions of voices of England must also be heard.” If these words are to mean anything at all then you must immediately address the issues you were asked about today.

Until you focus on saving rather than smearing the NHS, the public will be understandably confronted with the sad truth that all this Government offers is five more years of crisis in the health service.

Yours sincerely,

Andy Burnham MP
Shadow Health Secretary

Labour Party Conference Speech

Conference

I’ve got a question for you.

Hands up how many of you would walk 300 miles to save the NHS?

Hands up how many of you actually have?

Leading from the front, speaking for millions – Conference, please show your appreciation for the Darlo mums and the People’s March for the NHS.

We have arrived at a big moment.

The Party that created the NHS in the last century today sets out a plan to secure it in this.

A rescue plan for a shattered service.

But more than that.

A vision for a 21st century NHS there when you need it, personal to you and your family, with time to care.

A national health and care service based on people before profits.

Today we place that proud Labour plan at the centre of our Election campaign.

And, thanks to Ed’s great speech, we have the money to back it up.

A plan worth voting for, proof that all parties are not the same, giving you a real choice over the future of your NHS.

Because it certainly didn’t happen last time.

Remember that solemn promise of “no top-down reorganisation”?

It was a bare-faced lie.

Days into office, the Tories set about dismantling your NHS.

And the plan that dared not speak its name before the last Election is now plain for all to see:

run it down

break it up

sell it off.

So today we serve notice on Cameron and Clegg: Thursday 7th May 2015 - your day of reckoning on the NHS.

A reckoning for trashing the public’s most prized asset without their permission.

And a reckoning for a ruinous reorganisation that has dragged it down and left it on the brink.

A winter crisis in A&E now a spring, summer and autumn crisis too.

Over three million people on NHS waiting lists.

Families waiting longer for cancer treatment to start – and the national cancer target missed for the very first time.

The NHS can’t take five more years of Cameron.

I could go on about the damage he’s done.

But let’s be honest – would that help people worried about where the NHS is heading and wanting real answers?

I know there will be families and carers out there watching us today wondering whether anyone really understands what their life is like.

Soldiering on from one day to the next, feeling invisible and taken for granted, ringing the surgery early in the morning but unable to get through, telling the same story to everyone who comes through the door.

You feel no-one listens – and no wonder.

So that’s why I’m going to do something different today.

I want to speak directly to you.

And to the parents of children with disabilities, for whom life feels like one long battle and who fret endlessly about what would happen to your son and daughter if you weren’t around to fight.

To the millions of you who face the daily worry and stress of arranging mum or dad’s care whilst trying to hold down a job.

And, most of all, to those of you who might be watching this alone at home fearing what the future might hold.

My message is simple:

Labour is with you.

Your worries are ours.

We know things can be better than they are.

We want an NHS that takes your worries away.

And we can achieve it if we do something bold.

The time has come for this Party to complete Nye Bevan’s vision and bring social care in to the NHS.

That allows us to rebuild our NHS around you and your family.

No longer ringing the Council for this, the NHS for that.

But one service, one team, one person to call.

An NHS for the whole person, an NHS for carers, an NHS personal to you.

At last, a National Health Service keeping you well, not a National Sickness Service picking up the pieces.

And an end, once and for all, to the scandal that is care of older and vulnerable people in England in 2014.
I ask you this:

How much longer will we say that people who are so frail that they need help with getting up, washing and eating, and who suffer from loneliness and isolation, are only worth a slap-dash 15-minute visit?

How much longer will society send out the message to young people looking after someone else’s mum, dad, brother or sister that it is the lowest form of work, lower than the minimum wage because it doesn’t pay the travel time between the 15-minute visits?

How much longer will we see these shameful scenes from care homes on our TV screens of people are being shouted at or abused and not say enough is enough?

And for how much longer, in this the century of the ageing society, will we allow a care system in England to be run as a race to the bottom, making profits off the backs of our most vulnerable?

If this Party is about anything, then surely it is about ending that.

I want you to understand why I feel like this.

About ten years ago, I saw my own mum ground down and worn out by the battle to get decent care for my gran.

She was in a nursing home where corners were often cut and where it was hard to get GPs to visit.

The decent people who worked there were let down by the anonymous owners who filled it with untrained, temporary staff.

My gran’s things often went missing and we had got used to that.

But I will never forget the day when we walked in to see her and her knuckle was red raw where her engagement ring had been ripped off.

Right there, right then - I made it my mission to end this scandal.

And the greatest sadness of all was that this so-called care cost my grandmother everything she and my granddad had worked for.

I know millions of families have been through the same or are going through it now.

People look to Labour to change these things and that is what we will do.

You know the Tories will never do it.

They put profits before people – always – it’s in their DNA.

Their answer is to let the market that has ripped through social care carry on ripping through the NHS.

Conference, we will do the precise opposite.

I am clearer about this than anything in my life – the market is not the answer to 21st century health and care.
People out there know a minimum-wage, zero-hours approach will never secure the care they want for their mum and dad.

So our 10 year plan for the NHS is founded on people before profits.

We will free the NHS from Cameron’s market and, yes, repeal his toxic Health and Social Care Act.

We will ask hospitals to collaborate once again and reinstate the NHS as our preferred provider.

The public NHS, protected with Labour.

Not for sale.  Not now, not ever.
Cemented at the core of every community so that it can then begin the job of bringing social care in and lifting it up.

Building a culture of respect for all people who care and ending the indignity of flying 15-minute visits.

Caring no longer a dead-end job but part of one workforce working to NHS standards.

But there is a reason why we give the public NHS such stability.

It is so that we can ask it to embrace radical change in the way it provides services to you and your family.
We will ask all hospital trusts to evolve into NHS integrated care organisations, working from home to hospital coordinating all care – physical, mental and social.

Why?

Because it makes no sense to cut simple support in people’s homes only to spend thousands keeping them in hospital.

We can’t afford it. It will break the NHS.

But, more, it’s not right for you.

The ever-increasing hospitalisation of older people is no answer to the ageing society.

Bringing social care in doesn’t add to the financial burden.

It is the key to unlocking the money.

But it will mean change and you need to know what that means for you.

Just as Nye Bevan wrote to every household to introduce his new NHS, so I will write again in 2015 to explain what people can expect from our national health and care service.

And this is what I will say.

For any family caring for someone with long-term needs, one team around you.

No longer should frail or vulnerable people be shunted around the system, from ambulance to A&E to noisy ward.

Instead, this team will come to you. Its goal will be to keep you in your own home, safe and well.

You and your carers will have one person to call to get help so no longer telling the same story over and over again.

You will have a care plan personal to you and your family.

If you and your carers get what you really need from the start, then it’s more likely to work.

Building the NHS around you will need a new generation of NHS staff, as Ed said yesterday.

So we will recruit new teams of home care workers, physios, OTs, nurses, midwives with GPs at the centre.

And will we have mental health nurses and therapists at the heart of this team, no longer the poor relation on the fringes of the system but making parity a reality.

And to make sure this investment is not creamed off by others, we will look at how we can ensure private health providers contribute their fair share towards the cost of training.

But, with the best will in the world, the NHS won’t be able to do it all.

That is why I can announce today a big change in the way the NHS supports carers so they can keep going.
No longer invisible but at the very centre of this new service.

So today we announce new support for carers:

The right to a break or respite care;

The right to an annual health check;

Help with hospital car parking for carers;

And we will go further.

We will give all families the right to care in their home, if they want it.

A national health and care service truly there from cradle to grave – from a new right to have a home-birth and a right to be in your own home at the end of your life, surrounded by the people you love, with your care free and no worry about its cost.

These are the things that matter and this is about an NHS there for you at the most important moments in life.

This is what people want and this is what becomes possible with our plan.
True whole person care – simply not possible in Cameron’s fragmented, privatised, demoralised service.

Make no mistake - this coming Election is a battle for the soul of the NHS.

The fight of our lives.

Now we must walk 300 miles for the NHS to every doorstep in the land.

With hope.

With pride.

With passion.

With a plan you can believe in.

But, in the end, this is about more than us.

This is about you.

Your children, your grand-children, your great grandchildren.

It’s about whether an NHS will still be there for them in their hour of need as it has been for you.

Don’t regret it when it’s gone. Join the fight for it now.

So I make this appeal to you.

Help the Party that founded the NHS give it a new beginning.

Help us make it the service we all want it to be.

An NHS that puts people before profit.

An NHS that cares for the carers.

An NHS there for your mum and dad.

An NHS with time to care.

An NHS for all of you.

CHECK AGAINST DELIVERY

The verdict from cancer experts is clear: David Cameron’s NHS re-organisation has damaged cancer care

Responding to a report from Cancer Research UK on how David Cameron’s NHS re-organisation brought confusion and a loss of leadership that is damaging cancer care makes devastating reading for David Cameron. The verdict from cancer experts is clear: David Cameron’s NHS re-organisation has damaged cancer care just as Labour always warned it would.

After a decade of progress, cancer patients are waiting longer for tests and treatment. This is causing huge anxiety for thousands of families and the most frustrating thing of all is that the Prime Minister was explicitly warned that this would happen but he chose to ignore it. His reorganisation disrupted the successful cancer networks and, in the words of the report, left a "vacuum" on the cancer agenda. This explains why the NHS is now missing the national cancer standard for the first time.

Cancer care has gone downhill under this Government and they have nobody but themselves to blame for that. David Cameron must urgently set out a convincing plan to halt the decline in cancer standards.

The most recent data from NHS England show that in the first six months of 2014, the NHS missed the target for 85% of cancer patients to begin treatment with 62 days of GP referral. It was missed in Q4 2013/14 and Q1 2014/15 - the first time since its introduction in 2009.

Labour to bring forward Bill to repeal David Cameron’s market framework in the NHS

This week, Labour will back a Private Member's Bill from Clive Efford MP to repeal the damaging competition rules that the Tory-led Government inflicted on the NHS in its Health and Social Care Act 2012.

The Bill would rewrite the rules that force market tendering of services and that are seeing millions of pounds wasted on competition lawyers that should instead be spent on patients.

It will be debated in the Commons in November and Labour will use the intervening period to call on MPs from all sides to support the new law. Labour candidates in marginal seats will call on Tory and Liberal Democrat incumbents to back the Bill, whilst highlighting examples of how the current rules are wasting money and fragmenting care.

David Cameron's biggest mistake by far is his decision to break the Coalition Agreement promise of 'no top-down re-organisation of the NHS'. He is the Prime Minister who put the NHS up for sale without first seeking the permission of the British public.

Conservative and Liberal Democrat MPs will now need to decide whether they are prepared to go into an Election defending that policy or whether they will do the decent thing and admit they got it wrong.

David Cameron's re-organisation has left the NHS, in the words of its former Chief Executive, 'bogged down in a morass of competition law'. If we leave things as they are, the NHS as we have known it for 66 years will not survive. This Bill will free the NHS from that morass and restore the right values to its heart: collaboration over competition; people before profits.”

The Bill will focus on two main areas:

1. Section 75 rules

These are the rules that many doctors say are forcing them to put services out to the market, even if they do not want to, for fear of legal challenge.

Labour oppose these regulations because they risk fragmenting care and are seeing large amounts of money spent on tendering exercises rather than patient care.

• In a recent survey by Health Service Journal, two thirds of commissioners said they had experienced increased commissioning costs as a result of the new regulations (Health Service Journal, 4 April 2014)

• Last year, the Chief Executive of the NHS said “You’ve got competition lawyers all over the place, causing enormous difficulty...We are getting, in my view, bogged down in a morass of competition law which is causing . . . significant cost in the system” (Sir David Nicholson, Financial Times, 5 November 2013).

Labour will scrap these rules and return to a system based on collaboration and integration.

2. Competition framework

The Health & Social Care Act exposed the NHS to the full force of EU competition law. It also established Monitor as an economic regulator to enforce competition in the NHS, along with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA).

Labour opposes this framework because it is hindering important service improvements, and is seeing further large amounts of money wasted on competition administration and competition lawyers.

The Efford Bill would scrap the competition framework, remove the role of Monitor as an economic regulator enforcing competition in the NHS, and remove the Competition and Markets Authority from any role in the NHS.

£2billion NHS Funding Gap

David Cameron chose to put NHS finances on this knife-edge when he wasted £3 billion on a damaging re-organisation and clawed back a further £3 billion to the Treasury in recent years. That is why the NHS is in a such a fragile financial position.

David Cameron is transferring large amounts of money out of the NHS to back-fill the hole he’s created in social care finances. I am worried that the Better Care Fund will set back the cause of integration and get it a bad name - the policy should be put on hold pending a full parliamentary debate.

NHS patients are already seeing waiting times and cancer care heading downhill on this Government’s watch - people will fear that much worse will be in store next year. It is why they don’t trust him with the NHS.

Sharp Decline in standards in England's hospitals

Reports disclosed to me by the official care standards regulator in England suggests a sharp decline in standards in England’s hospitals over the last 12 months.

In the last year, inspectors observed examples of unacceptably poor care at one in five hospitals. By March this year, the care regulator listed 45 hospitals not providing safe care following 215 inspections – close to three times the 16 hospitals failing on this measure in the same month in 2013.

In the same period, Care Quality Commission inspectors found 32 hospitals without adequate numbers of staff – more than one in six - after inspecting 175, up from 14 only a year earlier.

The inspectors’ official reports catalogue the failings witnessed, including:

• a trebling of bed sores put down to under-staffing;
• patients on the wrong wards not visited by doctors over the weekend;
• patients transferred from other hospitals without any medical notes;
• diabetic patient left without insulin;
• unstaffed ambulance triage area, leaving patients and paramedics waiting;
• unanswered call-bells;
• patient needing fall assessment every 48 hours not seen for 3 weeks;
• inexperienced A&E receptionist told patients with chest pains to take a seat, against hospital policy on suspected heart attacks;
• patients at risk of malnutrition or dehydration not given assistance to eat and drink;
• backlog of X-rays and CT scans reports caused by lack of staff;
• an overreliance on locum and agency staff.

This provides indisputable proof that the NHS is heading seriously downhill on this Government’s watch. Hospitals across England are operating way beyond safe bed occupancy levels and without enough staff.

It is simply not good enough for the Government to blame the NHS, as they always trying to do. Hospitals are having to pick up the pieces from their botched policies. Severe strains on general practice, mental health and social care are piling pressure on hospitals. There is a limit to what hospitals can safely do and these reports show that many have now reached and even gone beyond it.

What we are now seeing are the consequences of David Cameron’s disastrous decision to destabilise the NHS with an unwanted and unnecessary re-organisation. Hospitals are struggling, NHS waiting lists are at a six-year high and it has got harder for millions to get a GP appointment.

But, as the NHS in England goes downhill, Ministers have spent the last year pointing the finger at the NHS in Wales. Self-serving spin like that is of no use to patients. People will rightly ask: why wasn’t their attention focused where it should have been - on services in England?

This explains why people have reached the conclusion the NHS is simply not safe in David Cameron’s hands. He must cut the spin and bring forward a credible plan to ensure hospitals are safe and properly staffed.

Launch of Independent Commission on Integrated Health & Social Care

I joined Sir John Oldham OBE in launching his report on plans to bring together NHS and care services. It proposes a single care team – doctors, nurses, therapists – working together to meet a personalised plan, with a greater emphasis placed on prevention and keeping people away from unnecessary hospital stays. Older people and their families would benefit from a single point of contact to coordinate all their care needs.

"This report is about re-founding the NHS for the 21st century and building it out for the whole person.

Whole person care starts in the home. We have to make the home the default setting for care - fundamentally rethinking how you care for older people. A person to coordinate your care so families are no longer passed from pillar to post.

But we don’t need new organisations to provide a higher standard of care - just give existing organisations a new job to do.

The Commission agrees that David Cameron’s NHS competition rules are fragmenting care, not integrating it. That’s why it repeats Labour’s call for them to be abolished.

My offer to the Government to rescue care.data scheme

I am calling for a series of tough new safeguards in exchange for Labour's support

I am calling on Ministers to use the Care Bill – due in the Commons next month – to introduce new protections, including:

• Tougher penalties for any misuse of data
• Secretary of State sign off on any application to access data and full transparency of all organisations granted access
• New opt-out arrangements by phone or online.

I have offered urgent talks with the Secretary of State to see if a way ahead could be found. If Ministers refuse to agree, I will bring amendments to the Care Bill and force a Commons vote on them.

Labour believes the Secretary of State may have misled the Commons. During Health Questions, Hunt claimed, “we have sent a leaflet to every house in the country.”

However, a Freedom of Information response from NHS England reveals that the unaddressed leaflet was not considered ‘exceptional’ post – common for nationwide Government communications – and therefore did not reach houses that ask Royal Mail not to deliver junk post.

Many people still report never having received the leaflet.

When he was appointed, the Health Secretary declared it his personal mission to have a “data revolution” in the NHS. What he has presided over is a spectacular collapse in public confidence in the use of that data. The only revolution he’s created is the growing public revolt against his care.data scheme. And coming after his NHS 111 shambles, his court humiliation over Lewisham, it cements a growing reputation for incompetence.

The Health Secretary has presided over a spectacular collapse in public confidence in the use of that data. Even by this Government’s standards, this is a masterclass in incompetence. First, their useless glossy leaflet didn’t even go to every home as Ministers explicitly promised. Second, when people can’t even get through to their GP practice on the phone, let alone get an appointment, they have made it almost impossible for them to opt out.

We don’t want to see this scheme wrecked by Government incompetence – it is too important for that. This is a genuine offer to put the scheme back on track. We hope that Ministers’ pride won’t stop them from doing the right thing. If they work with us to introduce a series of tough new safeguards, some of which can be introduced to the Care Bill, we will help rescue this failing plan.

Health Select Committee report on public expenditure on NHS and social care

This report is a damning verdict from the Select Committee on the damage done to the NHS by David Cameron’s re-organisation.

It is now beyond question that the NHS has been left weakened, confused and fragmented by these changes. It is clear that it distracted focus from the financial challenge and resulted in crude and damaging cuts to frontline care. Ministers’ decision to force competition on the NHS is now beginning to cause real damage to patient care and is preventing the integration the service needs. The Committee is right to call for a review of these unwanted rules.

It is now clear that the Government must now revisit their plans for further brutal cuts to social care. If things are left as they are, it result in ever-greater hospitalisation of frail older people and that is no answer to the ageing society.

This report is a broad endorsement of Labour’s plans to integrate the NHS and social care and we welcome it. The Government must now admit its re-organisation was a mistake and repeal this market madness.

New Diagnostic & Treatment Centre for Leigh Infirmary

I was proud to officially open the new Hanover Diagnostic and Treatment Centre, the largest recent single development on the Leigh Infirmary site and a major improvement to NHS services for patients and staff in Leigh.

The largest clinical services building developed by Wrightington, Wigan and Leigh (WWL) NHS Foundation Trust since Phase IV opened at Wigan’s Royal Albert Edward Infirmary in 2004, the  Hanover Diagnostic & Treatment Centre is home to the Leigh Endoscopy Department, Richmond Urology Unit and Women’s Healthcare Unit, in addition to a new Endoscope Re-processing Unit.

In just nine months, the old Hanover building was transformed into an iconic landmark, a contemporary design delivering high quality services for Leigh Infirmary patients and staff.

WWL’s major investment in the Hanover Diagnostic and Treatment Centre means Leigh Infirmary now boasts a world-class NHS healthcare facility to complement the highly trained, multi-disciplinary team of expert consultants, nurses and allied health professionals.

The purpose built Leigh Endoscopy Unit is designed to provide a patient-centred experience which maintains the highest standards for comfort, safety and quality while safeguarding each patient’s privacy and dignity.

The Richmond Urology Unit is a one stop clinic to diagnose and treat patients with diseases of the urinary tract and the male reproductive system, including bladder problems, vasectomy, prostate problems and cancer of the prostate, alongside a dedicated Urology Outpatient Suite.

The new Women’s Healthcare Unit sees a radical transformation of gynaecology services. General gynaecology outpatient and specialist clinics are provided side-by-side, with gynaecology ultrasound facilities providing immediate access to specialist scans. The philosophy is a ‘one stop’ service where all diagnostic tests are carried out during a single visit, whenever possible.

May Logan Healthy Living Centre

I paid a visit to Liverpool Housing Trust’s May Logan Centre in December and was given a guided tour of the Merseyside healthy living centre which aims to improve the well being, health and quality of life for local people.

Every year 50,000 people use the centre’s services which include family planning, smoking cessation, Alder Hey clinics, cafe and IT suite.

The visit came about after Donna Kelly, housing and support director at Liverpool Housing Trust (LHT), attended a conference where I spoke about the NHS.

During the visit I watched a brief presentation about the May Logan Centre, took a guided tour of the building, spoke to staff and met local people taking part in an art therapy group, an exercise session for older people and parent toddler cookery course.

The May Logan Centre is a good example of the great work that can take place when health and social care come together under one roof. It’s clear from speaking to the dedicated staff and the people who use the centre that it’s a lifeline.

Nursing numbers falling to dangerous levels

There are today close to 6,000 fewer nurses in the NHS than when this Government came to power. As a result, too many hospitals in England do not have safe staffing levels.

I have repeatedly warned the Government about nurse numbers falling to dangerous levels. This new focus on recruitment is overdue but it shouldn’t have taken this long and it won’t be enough to repair the damage of three years of falling nurse numbers on David Cameron’s watch. He is allowing the NHS to go into a dangerous winter with a shortage of nurses and with increasing numbers of older people being admitted because of this Government’s deep cuts in social care.

Labour is committed to safe staffing levels in hospitals based on expert advice. The Government is yet to deliver a convincing plan for bringing all hospitals in England back up to safe staffing levels.

I'm backing campaign to encourage people to find out their risk of Type 2 Diabetes

I have backed a campaign by Diabetes UK to reach the 7 million people in the UK who are at high risk of Type 2 diabetes and he is urging people to have their risk of the condition checked.

The Diabetes UK campaign, funded by  its National Charity Partnership with Tesco, aims to help people understand the seriousness of Type 2 diabetes, which can lead to devastating health complications such as amputation, blindness and stroke, so that people understand the importance of preventing it.

The campaign will also raise awareness of the risk factors of the condition – being over 40 (or over 25 if you are from a South Asian background); being overweight or having a close family member with diabetes – and is urging people to take a risk assessment if any of these risk factors apply to them. People can do this online , or by visiting a pharmacy or by going to their GP. Those at high risk can then be given information about how to reduce their risk as up to 80 per cent of cases of Type 2 diabetes can be delayed or prevented through healthy lifestyle changes.

As well as identifying those at high risk, the campaign is expected to identify some of the estimated 850,000 people in the country who have undiagnosed Type 2 diabetes. It is really important that these people are detected as if the condition is not diagnosed early, or is left untreated, it is more likely to lead to devastating complications such as heart disease, stroke, kidney disease, blindness and amputation.

Type 2 diabetes is a very serious condition that can lead to devastating complications such as blindness, amputations and stroke and can have a devastating impact on both the people affected and their families. Yet there are many people in Leigh who at high risk of the condition or already have it but don’t know it. It is important that these people get assessed so that they can get the treatment and support that they need to reduce their risk or manage the condition. This is why I’m backing Diabetes UK’s campaign and urging people in Leigh to make themselves aware of the risk factors for Type 2 diabetes and to have a risk assessment if any risk factors apply to them. It is one of the best things you can do for your health and for your family.

People with Type 2 diabetes don’t produce enough insulin or the insulin they produce doesn’t work properly (known as insulin resistance).  85 to 90 per cent of people with diabetes have Type 2.  They might get Type 2 diabetes because of their family history, age and ethnic background puts them at increased risk.  They are also more likely to get Type 2 diabetes if they are overweight.  It starts gradually, usually later in life, and it can be years before they realise they have it. Type 2 diabetes is treated with a healthy diet and increased physical activity.  In addition, tablets and/or insulin can be required. 

NHS Workforce Stats show huge cut in Nursing numbers

In response to the publication of NHS workforce statistics this morning showing that the number of nurses in the NHS has been cut by 4,893 since May 2010 it is clear that the NHS simply cannot continue to take nursing cuts on this scale and maintain standards of patient care. Jobs losses on this scale are dangerous.

David Cameron likes to blame everyone else but these figures show he is ignoring warnings from Robert Francis and Bruce Keogh about the importance of safe staffing levels.

The NHS has now lost almost 5,000 nurses on Cameron's watch and A&Es across England have struggled to cope. A re-organisation no-one wanted has siphoned £3 billion out of the front-line. This Prime Minister has given six-figure pay-offs to managers and P45s for nurses.

David Cameron must urgently intervene to ensure safe staffing levels in our hospitals. These dangerous cuts show that you can’t trust the Tories with the NHS.

Cystic Fibrosis Week

I met with representatives of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and families affected by cystic fibrosis at an event at the House of Commons.The event aimed to raise awareness amongst MPs and other key decision-makers about important issues for people with cystic fibrosis and the transplantation process.

1 in 3 of those with cystic fibrosis who are on the transplant list will die waiting. Cystic fibrosis is a life-shortening genetic condition affecting 10,000 people in the UK. New treatments and better clinical care are helping people with cystic fibrosis to live longer but many will still reach a point where their only hope is a double lung transplant.

I was delighted to attend this event and learn first hand some of the issues that affect my constituents living with cystic fibrosis. I was also able to learn about the work of the Cystic Fibrosis Trust and find out more about their open consultation looking at the issues affecting the number of lung transplants for people with cystic fibrosis.”

Most people don’t understand what cystic fibrosis is, or what it does, until someone close to them is affected by it. They soon discover it’s a life-shortening genetic condition - only half live to celebrate their fortieth birthday.

Cystic fibrosis directly affects around 10,000 people in the UK.

The faulty gene is carried by over two million people in the UK, most of whom have no idea. If two carriers have children, there’s a one in four chance their child will have the condition, which slowly destroys the lungs and digestive system.

People with cystic fibrosis often look perfectly healthy. But it’s a lifelong challenge involving a vast daily intake of drugs, time-consuming physiotherapy and isolation from others with the condition. It places a huge burden on those around them and the condition can critically escalate at any moment.

The Cystic Fibrosis Trust is here to beat it and make a daily difference to the lives of those with cystic fibrosis, and the people who care for them. Fighting it is a battle we must win. That’s why we must keep working for and fundraising for change. That's why we must develop better treatments and, ultimately, a cure. Cystic fibrosis is beatable. Find out more here or call the helpline 0300 373 1000.