Speeches by Smyth.

“I will come on to social care, but I will make the broader point that every system is different, and the pressures in every system are different. Some systems suffer worse from poorer levels of primary or community care. Others, particularly those across borders, struggle with discharges and packages of care. One thing…”

“I will come on to staffing to address some of those points. The hon. Gentleman makes an excellent point about staff recruitment and retention, which is a key part of our future look at the system. On winter planning, the Government should not be micromanaging people in local systems as they do their job. Rather, we nee…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I thank the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for securing the debate and hon. Members for taking part. We have all just rushed from the main Chamber and I think I am the only person here who has come out enthused and excited after what we hear…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mrs Harris. I welcome the hon. Member for South Northamptonshire (Sarah Bool) to this place, as I have not had a chance to do that. I thank her for securing the debate and sharing her own personal experience. She spoke powerfully about her fear, disbelief and sadness a…”

“I thank the hon. Lady for her assiduous work in opposition. Looking at the capital estate is one of my favourite new responsibilities, and our commitment to a neighbourhood service means that we need to bring services together. We need to look at this across the piece, to make sure that primary care is provided where i…”

“No, I want to move on. I will take one more intervention from the Government Benches at some point and then it is all fair, but I want to allow time for hon. Members to speak. In our first week, we pledged to increase the proportion of NHS resources going into primary care, and in our first month, the Government made a…”

“I wish the hon. Gentleman well with his own access to a GP at the moment. We are committed to working with the profession on the best way to organise primary care. The critical point is that primary care, however it is organised in neighbourhoods, is there for our constituents when they need it. It is not there now. Th…”

“Yes, as that will be one from each side of the aisle.”

“I am tempted, but I know that many of the hon. Lady’s colleagues want to speak, and I am sure she is on the list. Fixing the NHS will take years of discipline and hard work, and we are in this for the long haul. However, we must first clean up the mess we inherited, and that work has begun in earnest. We have found the…”

“I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “Parliament” to the end of the Question and add: “; welcomes the urgency with which the new Government commissioned Lord Darzi to conduct an independent investigation of the NHS in England; recognises that within weeks of taking office the Government invested £82 million to…”

“My hon. Friend has highlighted an issue that is often overlooked. Homelessness has risen to shocking levels in the last 14 years. When it was addressed under the last Labour Government, people were moved off the streets, and there was decent care at the front end of the hospital system and support in the community. My …”

“Lord Darzi’s report concluded that the health service is in a critical condition across the country, including in the east midlands, where healthy life expectancy has declined in the past decade. Waiting lists in the region stand at slightly below the national average for 18-week waits, at 57% compared to the national …”

“I thank the right hon. Gentleman for helping to underline the shocking inheritance from the previous Government. He is absolutely right. We are committed to cutting waiting times and serving constituents, like mine, by delivering the long-term reform the NHS desperately needs. The Government are committed to the fundin…”

“My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are committed to improving diagnostics as part of our reform of the health sector. Analysis of waiting lists shows that 20% of people will end up with a hospital admission, most as a day case. To improve waiting times, the focus must be on early prevention, diagnostics and consult…”

“The recent independent report by Lord Darzi makes it absolutely clear that urgent and emergency care services are also struggling, with the latest data published last week showing that one in 10 patients spend over 12 hours in A&E. We are committed to returning to service standards that patients rightly expect thro…”

“I commend my hon. Friend for championing this issue on behalf of his constituents. I understand that he has raised it with the chief executive officer of his local trust. He will appreciate that commissioning decisions are a matter for the local integrated care board, in this case Kent and Medway ICB, but I am, of cour…”

“I thank the hon. Gentleman for his good wishes. It is, indeed, a huge task we have before us. We will maintain ambulance capacity throughout this winter. He makes a valuable point about alternative models to hospital admissions and treatment in the community. That is a matter for the local ICB, as I know he knows. It n…”

“My hon. Friend is right to raise the crisis of midwifery services. We have already had debates in Westminster Hall about this, and the issue affects the entire country. It is a priority for this Government, and I am of course happy to meet her to discuss her constituency issue.”

“What we see at the front end of the system is a result of the deterioration throughout the system, and the flow of patients from the community, through discharge and, indeed, through social care. Our ambitious 10-year plan will involve examining the entire patient pathway to ensure that care is provided in the communit…”

“As Lord Darzi outlined, capital development in the NHS is shocking, with a backlog of £11 billion in maintenance. I would be happy to meet the hon. Member to discuss his problem.”