Frank at the demonstration against the closure of the Whittington A & E. With Jeremy Corbyn MP, Karen Jennings, Emily Thornberry MP and David Lammy MP

Frank Dobson yesterday spoke against the closure of the Whittington Accident & Emergency Unit in the House of Commons.  He welcomed a statement by the Health Minister, who said he was unconvinced of the closure of the A & E unit.

Frank has been a vocal supporter of the Whittington A & E and recently joined thousands of local people on the march against the closure.

The text of his speech to the Commons is below:

Frank Dobson (Holborn and St. Pancras) (Lab): I find it very unconvincing when I hear a Tory Front Bencher speaking in favour of reducing health inequalities. When we came to power in 1997, each part of the country was supposed to be allocated health service funds that reflected the size, nature and health of their population, but the east end of London was getting 23 per cent. less than it was entitled to, and surprise, surprise, Tory Surrey was getting 23 per cent. more than it was entitled to. That is entirely typical of what the Tories have always done.

In my constituency, investment under the Labour Government has been quite dramatic. We have the new University College hospital, which I freely admit got under way when I was Health Secretary; and we have also had big improvements at the Royal Free hospital, which serves my area, and at Great Ormond Street hospital, which serves children from across the country. We have new health centres, with two in Kentish Town and one that has just reopened in Gospel Oak; most GP premises have been improved; and the survival rates and general performance in our area have massively improved because the buildings and equipment have at long last started to match the excellence of the staff.

As part of that, there has been a lot of investment in the Whittington hospital. I can remember, when I was in opposition, going to the Whittington and pledging all sorts of things. As I believe in keeping pledges, those pledges have been kept, and a lot of extra money has been invested in the Whittington. I could not get firm figures from the hospital today, but as I understand it £27 million was invested in the new accident and emergency department, so my hon. Friends and I find it slightly bizarre-to say the least-that nameless, faceless people have suddenly appeared on the scene and decided to recommend that the A and E department, in which all that money has been invested, no longer function, and that instead people be diverted to the Royal Free and University College hospitals.

I checked this morning at University College hospital. It was designed for 60,000 A and E attendees, and it now has knocking on for 90,000, so Lord only knows where the 90,000 people who use the Whittington will go. Apparently, the explanation is that many would go to clinics-new health centres-in Islington. The only trouble is that they have not been built, and it will cost money to build them. So if the closure is being undertaken to save money, it is utterly stupid because it will involve spending money to substitute for the money that has already been spent at the Whittington.

Glenda Jackson (Hampstead and Highgate) (Lab): The issue is not only the waste of money, because the Whittington A and E rumours, which are rife in our part of the world, are having a serious knock-on effect on the hospital in my half of the borough of Camden, namely the Royal Free, and that is producing anxiety among not only patients but staff. Surely we have not invested all that money in the national health service and its staff suddenly to make them feel that they are no longer wanted or useful. It must be having an effect on their contribution now.

Frank Dobson: As ever, I agree with my hon. Friend and good friend. The report that was produced on behalf of the primary care trust last week shows how it estimates that between only 10 and 30 per cent. of the people who currently attend A and E could be properly attended to at one of the devolved clinics, as we might describe them. However, up to now the basis of the Darzi report has been that between 50 and 60 per cent. of people could be safely dealt with at such clinics, and I do not agree. I am simply not convinced.

The whole basis of the concentration of stroke provision and major trauma provision, which I strongly support, is that practice makes perfect, but apparently practice does not make perfect in A and E any more, because the people who have a lot of practice at a large A and E will be substituted by people who have a lot less practice at clinics in the community. So the closure does not make sense in terms of the practicalities or, indeed, the money.

The idea that there was widespread, successful consultation of Londoners over the whole Darzi thing is really preposterous. About 1,800 Londoners-and there are rather a lot of us-expressed support for the Darzi proposition, and about 1,700 said that they did not want it, so the view was far from unanimous even among those who were consulted. I find that outcome about as convincing as Lord Ashcroft’s protestations about his tax status, and we all know what that indicated.

Unfortunately, these aspects are bringing into disrepute a great deal of the achievements that the Government have brought about in the years that we have been in office. At the meeting I went to, when we had to listen to the burblings of some of the people who are proposing what is happening at the Whittington, nothing much was said about improving clinical performance; it was all about saying, “Oh, we think we’re going to be £500 million down.” When they were pressed to explain how that was going to happen, they could not come up with any satisfactory explanation. I can only assume that they are absolutely convinced that there will be a Tory Government and that there will therefore be a £500 million-a-year reduction in the money that is available, because they could not possibly conclude that from anything that the Labour Government have been committed to.

We need to look at the functions of NHS London. It is NHS London, not NHRS London: it is there to help clinicians in London to improve the services, not to be a national health reorganisation service for London. A lot more attention needs to be paid to what local people want.

In talking about A and E, I come back to the thing that I have been obsessed with for all the time that I have had an interest in this issue, and that goes back a very long way-if we want to make A and E departments more successful, let us put some GPs in there to deal with the folks who choose to turn up. People do not want to be told, even by clinicians, that they should not turn up at their local hospital. If they want to turn up for GP services, as well as strictly A and E provision, that should be fine by us, and it would be a proper response to the situation that we face.

I strongly welcome what the Minister said about being far from convinced of the merits of the closure of the A and E at Whittington hospital. One has to be careful what one says when one is a Minister, and what he said far from overstates the reaction of most people in the area and, according to all my sources, the reaction of most of the clinicians who are working at the Whittington and want to continue to do so. I welcome what he said, and I think he had better press on with it. We cannot leave this to bureaucrats. It is no good leaving things to bureaucrats, because when they get it wrong, they do not have to stand at the Dispatch Box to explain. Ministers have to do that, so Ministers should take responsibility right the way through. The people who take the decisions should carry the can, and the people who carry the can should take the decisions.

Frank Dobson with John Conway at the re-opening of the Gospel Oak Health Centre

Frank Dobson MP has welcomed the re-opening of the newly refurbished Gospel Oak Health Centre.

Frank said:  “The refurbished Gospel Oak Health Centre will be of huge benefit to the local community, with first class premises and equipment and first class staff providing a first class service for the people of Gospel Oak.  It is yet another example of the Labour Government’s investment in our local NHS, with many improvements to GP premises including the new Kentish Town Health Centre, the Caversham Group Practise and a whole new hospital at UCLH.  This record investment would be threatened by Tory David Cameron’s ‘age of austerity’ and Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg’s ’savage cuts’.”

Frank Dobson MP has criticised Lib Dem / Tory run Camden Council’s decision to cut funding to UK Online centres in Camden by more than 80%.  Frank said:  “The Lib Dems running the Town Hall were cutting our local services long before Nick Clegg’s call for ‘savage cuts’.  But the words of their leader seem to have given them renewed determination in their slash and burn approach to funding in Camden.

“UK Online centres provide the neediest in Camden with much needed access to the Internet, as well as computer training and English classes.  Children and young people use them for homework support and older people use them to keep in touch with friends and relatives.  They are a vital support network for many people.  This cut will result in some of Camden’s sixteen UK Online centres closing and reduced services at others, as well as job losses across the organisation.  It also comes at a time when more and more council services are going online.

“This latest cut is part of a worrying pattern.  The Lib Dems and Tories have made cuts to advice services, including Citizens Advice Bureaus to youth funding and recycling on estates, as well as hiking prices by 20% for meals on wheels for the elderly.  What upsets me most of all is that these cuts always seem to be aimed at the poorest and most vulnerable in Camden – the most socially polarised borough in London.  Why can’t the Council spend some of the £100 million it holds in its reserves on saving this vital service?

“There will be a public meeting about the cuts to UK Online at 7pm on Monday 1^st February, which I would encourage as many people as possible to attend.  I also urge everyone to sign the petition against the cuts at http://www.ipetitions.com/petition/supportcamdenukonline-stop-the-c/”

Frank has sent a message to local residents who attended last night’s meeting about progress on plans for a school south of the Euston Road:

Dear Fellow Resident,

I am sorry I cannot be present at tonight’s meeting as I would like to hear what Camden representatives have to say about the current position on the new secondary school our area so clearly needs.  The Lib Dem/Tory Council has had nearly four years to plan and build one but they haven’t done a thing.  Instead, the Council has missed a golden opportunity.  For many years no money was available for a new secondary school.  But in 2006, the Government guaranteed Camden the funds to build one.  The big question was ‘where?’  Camden has nine secondary schools.  Camden needed a tenth secondary school.  The area south of Euston Road has a tenth of Camden’s child population but no school.  The Government’s Building Schools for the Future programme presented a once-in-a-lifetime chance to provide one.  Did the Lib/Dem councillors jump at the opportunity to build the school in our area?  No, they did not.

They ignored the children of this area, ignored what parents said at public consultations and announced they would build the new secondary school in Hampstead.  When local parents in this area and I protested they said

-          that they couldn’t reconsider the decision because there was a deadline

-          that any delay would hold up investment in other Camden schools

-          that the Government wouldn’t agree to a four-form entry school

-          that there wasn’t a site for a school in this area

-          that there weren’t enough children in the area to justify a new school

None of what they said was true.  I took a delegation of local parents to meet the Schools Secretary, Ed Balls, and he made clear, and later confirmed in writing, that the Council would be allowed more time if more time was needed, that nothing need hold up the investment in other Camden schools and that a four-form entry school would be acceptable.  Then the local parents’ campaign identified the Wren Street site which the Council had ignored.  And the Council was forced to admit that the child population figures I supplied were accurate and would justify a new secondary school.

But the Council still refused to reconsider their decision and continued to ignore the needs of families south of Euston Road.  They are putting the investment into a new school in Hampstead and are trying to fob off parents in this area with the promise of expanding South Camden Community School north of Euston Road.  But there are enough children living either side of Euston Road to fill two secondary schools and the numbers will increase with new developments.  So, it’s very important tonight to find out exactly what they are now doing.  Actions speak louder than words.  If they had acted sooner, building could have started on our new school.

Yours sincerely,

Frank Dobson MP

Frank Dobson MP has welcomed the Labour Government’s Cold Weather Payments, which have helped more than 500,000 people across London towards their fuel bills.

In addition to £250 winter fuel payments for the over-60s (£400 for the over-80s) an extra cold weather payment of £25 has been made available to help pensioners heat their homes during the cold snap.

Frank said:  “In the 1980s Tory minister Edwina Curry told pensioners to ‘wear woolly hats and long johns’ in the cold weather, and in 1997 the Tories spent just £60 million a year on helping pensioners meet their fuel bills.  Labour now spends £2.7 billion a year.  These extra payments are automatic, so everyone entitled will get one and shouldn’t worry about the cost of turning up their heating.

“Labour has invested to ensure that pensioners don’t have to worry about staying warm in the winter, spending £13 billion more on pensioners than if we’d stuck to the Tory policies of 1997.  But all of this investment would be threatened under David Cameron’s ‘age of austerity’ or Nick Clegg’s ‘savage cuts’.”