York Press column: Health matters to York
October 19, 2022
While the national news has been rightly been dominated by the effects of last month’s mini-budget, I thought I would use this column to highlight that Members of Parliament across the House of Commons have not overlooked the other issues that are important to our constituents.
In the last week, I have given particular focus to local health matters posing questions to Ministers raised by constituents and from my constituency visits.
At Prime Minister’s Questions, I asked the Prime Minister to review waiting time targets for paediatric care to ensure York’s young children can receive the care they need as soon as possible.
This followed a visit to York Hospital children’s wards last month where I met doctors, nurses and staff who ensure our city’s young people receive the best care when they need it most. It was in discussions on the ward that I was shocked to learn that waiting time targets were the same for children as they were for adults.
Any delay to treatment for children could potentially have an impact on their long-term development so it is of the upmost important that our young people are treated as urgently as possible.
A key part of ensuring patients receive effective treatment is access to primary healthcare. Unfortunately, access has become increasingly limited in parts of York Outer as local surgeries close in villages. For some time, residents of Wheldrake have had to travel to Elvington to see their doctor after the village surgery closed. Those without their own car are having to pay £30 for a roundtrip in a taxi. It was also recently announced that Stockton-on-the-Forest GP surgery were reducing staffing hours to two mornings per week.
These changes are a major concern as worryingly those without access are more likely to make do rather than seek the help they need. This is why I asked in Business Questions for a debate on Government time so colleagues across the House can lobby for the changes our constituents want to see.
One of the key ways we can improve access to primary healthcare and lower waiting time targets is by expanding the NHS workforce. A simple way to achieve this would be to exempt doctors from public sector pension regulations which are currently forcing them to retire in their fifties to avoid a large tax bill which they correctly deem unfair after a lifetime of service to our NHS.
This simple change would also keep valued expertise within the NHS for longer and help in our battle against backlogs created by the Covid-19 which risk being a worse health crisis than the pandemic. In February, the Government published Delivery Plan for Tackling Covid-19 Backlogs published which was backed by more than £8 billion in funding from 2022 and 2023 to 2024 and 2025 and supported by a £5.9 billion investment in capital for new beds, equipment, and technology. More can be done and we need to ensure that after effects of the pandemic are neutralised as quickly a possible.
My health focussed week was bookended by a visit to Fulford School to promote the Restart a Heart Day initiative alongside Yorkshire Ambulance Service. Restart a Heart Day is a day where an alliance of partners from across the country come together to increase public awareness of cardiac arrests and increase the number of people trained in delivering lifesaving CPR.
Knowing CPR is a vital skill and there are countless examples where knowing how to successfully administer CPR is the difference between someone living or dying. It is hoped that by receiving formal training and regularly refreshers will give as many members of the public the confidence to intervene if the opportunity arose.
I will follow-up questions on paediatric waiting time targets and primary healthcare with the Health Secretary and continue my ongoing campaigns for a new hospital for York as well as greater awareness of antibiotic resistance. I do not know what next week will involve but no matter what the main story from Westminster is, residents can be assured I will continue to be a strong voice for York Outer on all issues.
