Grant Shapps (Welwyn Hatfield, Conservative) Link to this | Hansard source

I am grateful to be speaking at the end of what has been a very interesting debate, characterised by Labour Members telling us that everything is well, and Opposition Members pointing out problems. As ever, the truth probably lies somewhere in between. However, the specific subject of the debate is staff cuts and the surrounding financial environment, on which I wish to touch briefly.

There are many different ways in which the constraints on the health service are impacting on the way that it is run. I am very pleased that the Secretary of State is in her seat, so that I can mention one of them. Sterilisation of instruments is increasingly being centralised and as that is happening, operations are being cancelled, which is decreasing the efficiency of the health service. Next Monday, a report will be published showing a 21 per cent. increase in the number of operations cancelled, purely as a result of the centralisation of sterilisation of instruments used in operations.

I have a letter from a constituent who said that last week, she was in the Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Welwyn Garden City waiting for her operation. She came in the day before, so she used a hospital bed, in which she was put up overnight. A high-dependency bed was booked for her the day after her operation. She spent the entire day in the waiting room—the anteroom, as she calls it—awaiting surgery, only to be told that the operating implements were dirty and that no more could be obtained in time.

It was not only my constituent's operation that was cancelled that day; 10 others were also cancelled. Surely it cannot be long—it has probably already happened in the QEII hospital and elsewhere where centralisation is taking place—before somebody is on the operating table and is cut open, only for it to be found that an instrument of a different size or nature is required to finish the task. I know that that happens in operations—I once had my clavicle operated on, and exactly that happened. If no instruments are available, the person has to be sewn back together and told to come back another day. I tell the Secretary of State that that is an unacceptable situation, which is a direct consequence of the financial crisis that we are experiencing.

Another fact, sourced through a freedom of information request, is that there has been a 40 per cent. increase in the number of operations cancelled merely for administrative reasons, because, for example, the operating theatre had not been booked or the patient's notes not sent—even because the patient had not been told that the operation would be taking place. In a period of only three years, a 40 per cent. increase in cancelled operations for such reasons is of real concern.

I would appreciate the Secretary of State taking this point on board: 640 operations are cancelled every day, simply due to administrative cock-up—640 throughout the NHS. That is a huge figure. On Monday, I shall be supplying her with the figures, so that she can see for herself.
They have been obtained from all the hospital trusts through the freedom of information procedure, and I shall be interested to know what action the right hon. Lady intends to take.
Time is short, so I shall conclude by mentioning Hatfield hospital. The Secretary of State will be aware that her predecessor visited Hatfield before the election when a Health Minister held my seat with a dodgy majority. The then Secretary of State for Health promised us a £0.5 billion new private finance initiative hospital at Hatfield. What happened? When I defeated the incumbent Labour Health Minister, the plan for that hospital disappeared—[ Interruption.] If I am wrong I shall be interested to hear the Secretary of State's response.

Not only has that shiny new £0.5 billion hospital plan gone, but the existing Queen Elizabeth II hospital in Welwyn Garden City, which is supposed to support all the present population plus an expanded population, because we are told that we need to build tens of thousands of new homes, is being chopped away bit by bit. We are about to lose A and E, maternity, paediatrics and much more besides. That simply does not add up. I ask the Secretary of State to respond when she has the opportunity and I hope that she will take these matters more seriously than some of her Back Benchers, who have been laughing them off all afternoon.

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Promoted by Amanda Perkins on behalf of Grant Shapps, both of Maynard House, The Common, Hatfield, AL10 0NF