Lisa Nandy MP: we must build an NHS fit for the future

An endoscopy is an important procedure which uses a camera tube inside the body to investigate symptoms and help diagnose a range of conditions.

Once finished the new hospital wing will provide quicker access to endoscopy services and ensure the highest standards of care, increased patient choice and improvements in dignity and privacy. Construction is due to be completed by next summer and I look forward to seeing how the development progresses.

Every time I visit Wigan Infirmary I am struck by the passion and dedication that NHS staff have for improving healthcare for the people of Wigan despite the many challenges facing our current health system.

The week after my visit the true scale of these challenges was set out with the publication of renowned surgeon Lord Ara Darzi’s independent investigation into the state of the NHS. The report, ordered by the new Health Secretary on entering Government, concluded that our health service is “in critical condition”.

Lord Darzi’s review makes for devastating reading, setting out the serious issues facing our NHS and concluding that it is in “serious trouble”.

The problems identified are too long to list here but these are just a few: the NHS has not been able to meet its promises to treat patients on time for almost a decade with treatment waiting times contributing to people being unable to work, often permanently; patients have never been more dissatisfied with the service they receive; waiting lists for mental health and community services have surged; 50 years of progress on cardiovascular disease is going into reverse and cancer is more likely to result in death for NHS patients than for patients in other countries.

The review also seeks to identify the causes of the current crisis, laying much of the blame at the door of the previous Conservative Government’s actions over the last 14 years, including a decade of underinvestment in the NHS and a disastrous top-down NHS re-organisation in 2012.

In response to these findings the Health Secretary has issued a stark warning that continuing on our current path could see the NHS collapse and made clear this Government’s commitment to a different approach: recovery and reform.

I strongly welcome the pledge the Government has made to publish a ten-year plan for change and modernisation in the NHS based on the findings of Lord Darzi’s report, to restore our health service and ensure it is there for people when they need it for many more years to come.

I agree with the Health Secretary on the key shifts in approach that are needed to meet the challenges of the coming decades, increasing our focus on digital services, community healthcare and prevention.

We can, and we must, build an NHS fit for the future. As Lord Darzi’s report concludes, despite all the challenges the NHS currently faces, “its vital signs are strong”.