Luke Pollard MP Labour & Co-op Member of Parliament for Plymouth Sutton & Devonport
This week laid bare the full scale of the crisis facing the NHS. Lord Darzi’s damning report into the state of our NHS reveals the full damage done by the Conservatives to our health service:
- Patients are being failed on a daily basis, cancer is more likely to be a death sentence for Brits than our European neighbours
- The NHS is 15 years behind the private sector on technology
- Both children and adults are less healthy today than a decade ago
- The NHS is critical condition. We need to perform major surgery, or it will die
These findings are unforgiveable and people have every right to be angry, but the issues facing the NHS is no secret to anyone who lives in Plymouth. As everybody in the country knows, the last Conservative government broke the NHS.
The Tories would have you believe all of this is because of a once in a generation pandemic but today’s report clearly shows that this is just not true. Their incompetence has caused spiralling waiting lists for GPs, operations, ambulances, dentistry, mental health support and other services.
We are now facing a decade of recovery and reform for our NHS and social care services.
There is a long road ahead, but in Plymouth there are also signs of progress which should give people hope.
I recently visited the construction site for the New Dartmoor building at the top of the Derriford Hospital campus (pictured). The new urgent treatment centre and fracture clinic there is due to open early next year, and is the first step in the extraordinary plans that Derriford Hospital have to give us the hospital that we deserve as a city. This will take pressure off our emergency department, allowing the folks in there to treat people better.
My focus has also been on promoting the development of a new city centre health village. The first step is the development of the Community Diagnostics Centre which should start construction soon. A new city centre dental practice is under development as a direct result of the Labour council run Dental Taskforce and that should be announced in the coming months.
I am also backing action to improve access to primary care with conversations ongoing about new city centre provision of GP services too.
Labour will be publishing a ten year plan early next year, which will set out how we fundamentally reform the NHS. Our health service is broken, but it’s not beaten. We’ve turned the NHS around before and we will do it again.