York Press column: Delivering my plan for York
March 1, 2023
Regular readers will know that I have launched an audit of York’s health services and have had meeting with many of the city’s GP practices as well as with the CEO of the Hospital Trust. These discussions will help me influence health policy in Westminster and I hope will lead to best practices in York being adopted nationally helping improve patient outcomes everywhere.
Our city’s health is not just limited to primary care and our hospital, so I have also been working to bring awareness to one of the biggest health threats – antimicrobial resistance. While the UK is one of the world’s leaders in responsibly using antibiotics and containing outbreaks of antimicrobial resistant infections, we must also tackle the issue on the global stage given most infections treated by the NHS originated outside of the UK.
Last week, the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Antibiotics, of which I am Chairman, launched a joint-report alongside the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Water, Sanitation and Hygiene entitled Prevention First: Why Clean Water and Hygiene (WASH) are the Best Medicine Against the Spread of Drug-Resistant Infections.
The report makes key recommendations to the Government and encourages cross-departmental collaboration in achieving them. The report argues that the UK must firstly take the lead on international advocacy to improve WASH in HCFs to help prevent antibiotic resistance and raising this at the next G7 meeting in May 2023. Secondly, the UK must provide its fair share of funding for WASH in HCFs which equates at just 0.3% of its annual overseas aid budget. Thirdly, ensure that all FCDO health programmes support and catalyse progress on WASH.
We must recognise AMR as the major threat it is and act decisively without delay. The Government are due to release a renewed 5-year action plan to tackle AMR and I will work to ensure it is robust enough to address the reality of the threat we are facing.
While many of the health issues facing our city are well-known, some receive less attention. At a parliamentary reception hosted by Genetic Alliance UK, I was surprised to learn that York Outer is in the top 20 of constituencies for the number of adults and children living with mitochondrial disease in the UK.
In fact, 1 in 200 people in the UK carry a faulty mitochondrial gene but the issue does not receive the attention it deserves. Mitochondrial disease causes a wide range of devastating and highly debilitating symptoms that can affect any part of the body, including causing deafness, diabetes, epilepsy and stroke-like episodes.
We urgently need a national strategy to improve research, diagnosis and treatment of mitochondrial diseases and I will continue to work with Genetic Alliance UK to ensure mitochondrial diseases receive the Ministerial attention they deserve. As with AMR, these are national challenges that have a very real local impact.
Another priority for the city that I have been working on is my campaign to get York moving. As each year goes by, this means having better and better electric charging infrastructure. Last week saw the announcement of a £22 million extension to the Local EV Infrastructure Fund, of which City of York Council will receive £1,243,028. Nationally this funding will deliver 2,400 charging points and 600 gullies as well as leverage nearly £17 million in private investment.
I remain keen to see the transition to net-zero achieved a manner that is business and consumer friendly. It is important that the private sector is placed front and centre of the development.
To make charging more accessible, I am calling on the Government to implement FairCharge’s campaign to bring VAT rates for public charging points to be brought in line with the 5% rate users of private chargers must pay. The RAC Foundation estimate that 38% of UK households do not have access to off-street charging, these often being lower income households living in terraced housing and apartment blocks.
It is paramount that Britain doesn’t fall behind the rest of the western world when it comes to investment in infrastructure for the electric vehicle being rolled out on mass over the next decade. I will work to build on this latest funding boost from Government to ensure York leads the country as we continue to see more electric vehicles on the road.
