Working for West Derby; fighting for our NHS
I have this week written to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care regarding NHS services for West Derby constituents, including access to services and waiting times.
I have shared with the minister some alarming correspondence received from my constituents, including NHS workers, regarding the crisis engulfing health services in Liverpool and across the country.
In my letter I make it clear that the responsibility for the current NHS crisis lies firmly with the Government and I advise the minister that on behalf of my constituents and NHS staff I am demanding urgent action from him. In the (anonymised) correspondence I share with the minister, there is harrowing testimony from West Derby constituents on their experiences trying to access services including:
• Accident and Emergency
• Hospitals
• GP surgeries
• Dental surgeries
• Walk in centres
• NHS-111
• Prescriptions from pharmacies
I have asked the minister to let me know what urgent and long-term steps the Government will take to ensure that patients in West Derby can access emergency care and all wider NHS services, in a timely, dignified and effective manner. I have also asked him to indicate what urgent and long-term steps the Government will take to support NHS staff working in this crisis. You can read my letter to the Secretary of State above.
The NHS is under unprecedented strain, caused by a combination of rising energy prices, the impact of the pandemic, and, most of all, more than a decade of systematic underfunding and privatisation at the hands of the Tories. So much more needs to be done to protect this vital service. But this Government is attempting to destroy our precious NHS - chronic underfunding to set it up to fail, then making the case for privatisation backed up by right-wing media and commentators.
I have signed Every Doctor UK’s #ReviveTheNHS pledge, calling on the Government to commit to a five-point plan, including absorbing additional energy costs for NHS workplaces; enhancing mental health support for NHS staff; removing locum caps and ringfencing a new budget for NHS locum staff; addressing administrative problems in the Home Office for healthcare workers on visas; and eliminating pension caps which are pushing doctors out of the workforce