Yasmin Qureshi Labour Member of Parliament for Bolton South East
This column first appeared in the Bolton News on 12 January 2024
New Year is a time when many people renew focus on their health.
Many will be looking at quitting smoking, changing their diet or giving Dry January a go.
The good news is there is help available.
If you are looking to quit smoking you can go to – https://www.nhs.uk/better-health/quit-smoking/ and for Dry January or a more long term break from alcohol it might be helpful to go for the ‘Try Dry’ app available on Apple and Android.
January is also a time when the NHS comes under the most winter pressures.
It has been concerning to hear the reports of potential 11 hour waits at A&E.
This comes amid the appointments backlog in routine operations and at GP surgeries. I know the NHS nurses, doctors and support staff work incredibly hard but there are clear problems at the heart of our health service. It is currently in critical condition.
On the radio this week, I heard an NHS advert saying do not go to A&E but contact 111, your GP, go to a Pharmacist or a walk-in centre.
This is generally helpful advice but I cannot help but point out that here in Bolton, the Government closed the very useful Lever Chambers Walk-In Centre.
It is also difficult getting a GP appointment, with that 8am scramble becoming more pronounced over recent years, and people often having to wait days before even being able to make an appointment.
These issues are symptom of a wide problem in the NHS with delays across the board for routine surgeries, administration, prescriptions and treatments. It is astonishing that 10,000 healthy people across the country spent Christmas Day in hospital because they could not be discharged due to staff shortages.
Long waits for care and deteriorating services should not be tolerated. And under the last Labour Government, they weren’t. But today, 75 years on from the creation of the NHS, they are the norm.
The NHS crisis is partly a staffing crisis. There are 124,000 vacancies across the NHS and 165,000 in social care. We have lost 4,500 GPs over the last decade , 3,776 district nurses since 2010 and there is a shortfall of 5,000 health visitors. We cannot go on like this.
Labour will tackle that staffing shortage. We will invest 1.1bn in fast track surgery to clear the backlog, take the pressure off the frontline by reforming routine treatment and take full advantage of the latest technology to improve patient care.
More detail on all this can be found by searching Labour’s 5 Missions for Government. We are ready.