Good news, as they say, never makes headlines. So, it was no surprise that two recent health related announcements barely featured in the media.
The first was that NHS waiting lists fell for the fifth month in a row.
This is a remarkable achievement by NHS staff who delivered a record 18 million treatments last year and, through hard work and dedication, have continued to reduce the backlog.
Of course, we still have a long way to go before we can eliminate waiting lists entirely. Fixing the NHS, still reeling from 14 years of neglect by the previous government, will take time.
But we should nevertheless congratulate everyone involved for achieving this over the winter – from the cleaners and chief executives to the consultants and the community teams.
I was able to pass on my thanks in person last week when I visited Frimley Park Hospital.
Aside from taking the opportunity to hear about the plan to rebuild the hospital itself – which I will report on in the coming weeks – it was fascinating to discuss how services at the hospital are being, and could be, improved.
Many of you may remember that earlier in the year I held a series of ‘listening events’ with constituents to find out about local hopes and fears for the NHS.
It was useful to put these to local health bosses and very encouraging to hear that in many cases they are actively being addressed. To me, this illustrates the power of Labour’s commitment to the NHS. There is now the confidence to think about how we use this opportunity to improve healthcare for the long-term.
Key to this is that the NHS must shift from being a ‘sickness’ service to one that prevents people from becoming ill in the first place.
This is where the community teams are vital. They are at the frontline of this shift, providing the outreach and support – things like vaccinations and children’s health interventions – which are vital to our health in the future.
And, GPs have an equally important part to play.
So, the news that for the first time in four years, the government and doctors’ representatives have agreed reforms to GP contracts, is incredibly exciting.
Constituents regularly tell me that they want to be able to request an appointment with their regular doctor easily. Yet, over the past decade, funding for GPs was cut relative to the rest of the NHS, while the number of targets for GPs soared. That’s why so many have been struggling to get an appointment.
The new reforms will free doctors from red tape and box-ticking targets to concentrate on what they do best – treating patients.
I met Wes Streeting last week to underline my support for these measures and to impress upon him the health priorities for Aldershot and Farnborough. I can tell you that it was a great pleasure to meet someone so keen to listen and so clearly determined to fix the NHS for generations to come. It’s the sort of progress that’s rarely reported.
