,
Shadow Health and Social Care Secretary, responding to Matt
Hancock's covid-19 statement in the House today, said:
Capital investment for 25 A&Es will be welcome.
On the piloting of 111 to triage ahead of A&E, given
inequalities in accessing healthcare for the poorest and
disadvantaged, how will he ensure this doesn’t worsen
inequalities?
If this leads to greater demands on primary care, will GPs be
given extra resources as a consequence?
The NHS is facing a likely second spike, winter pressures, and a
monumental backlog in non-covid care.
We have 4 million people on the waiting list, 83,000 people
waiting beyond 12 months for treatment.
Last month 2535 people were waiting over two months to start
cancer treatment.
The Chancellor promised to give the NHS “whatever it needs’
Does that promise still stand?
Will the NHS get the funding it now needs to tackle the growing
backlog in non-covid care?
On social care: Can he guarantee care homes won’t face the same
shortage of PPE they faced at the start of the pandemic?
Does he accept that restrictions on family visits causes huge
harm to residents? Does he rule out re-imposing nationwide
restrictions on family visits?
Back in May he stood at that despatch box and told this house:
“That everyone aged five and over with symptoms is now eligible
for a test… Anyone with a new continuous cough, a high
temperature or a loss of, or change in, their sense of taste or
smell can book a test…”
“We have “now got testing for all”
Yet four months later, for the British people it has become not
so much Test and Trace, more like trace a test.
At just the point when many fear we are on the cusp of a deadly
second spike, the Prime Minister admits we don’t have enough
capacity.
And rather than fixing testing, the Secretary of State is
restricting testing.
In the exchanges on Tuesday, 33 members from all sides put to him
examples of testing failures.
He responded with local constituency figures, it’s a neat Commons
debating trick and well done to the special advisor who produced
the briefing.
But that’s little comfort to the:
25,000 teaching staff isolating many of whom need testing,
to the NHS staff off work
to the ill people now presenting at A&Es because they can’t
get a test or to the parents with poorly children off school and
themselves sick with worry because there is no testing available.
He was warned that infections would rise, if tracing wasn’t
effective and people were not given adequate support to isolate.
And here we are with almost 4000 new cases, the highest since
May.
Who will be the priority for a test under his rationing plans?
Care England say weekly testing of all care home staff is still
not happening, when will he guarantee it?
What about people living in areas of restriction? Will testing be
available?
What is his plan for Universities returning over the next
fortnight?
In July he pledged 150,000 asymptomatic tests per day by
September. Has that commitment now been abandoned?
But we shouldn’t be in this mess.
Rather that increase testing over the summer, pillar 1 and 2 lab
capacity remained broadly flat.
He’s now setting up more commercial lighthouse labs, but why not
instead invest in the 44 NHS labs and make better use of
University labs?
We know there are staff shortages across these labs because the
Prime Minister wrote to University Vice Chancellors begging for
staff to return.
There are huge numbers of voided tests across these commercial
labs including 35,000 voids at the Randox lab through August.
Today’s testing stats show turn around times for testing in these
labs is getting longer again.
Serco is failing to trace 80 per cent of contacts.
At what point will he strip poor performing outsourcing firms of
their lucrative public sector contracts?
When testing breaks down, case finding breaks down, isolation
breaks down and we lose control of the virus.
The British people made great sacrifices, they missed family
celebrations, many couldn’t say their final goodbye to loved ones
at funerals.
People honoured their side of the bargain. In return government
was supposed to deliver testing to drive the virus down.
Ministers failed.
And now we have vast swathes of the country, millions of people
under restrictions.
The Prime Minister yesterday said a second lockdown would be
disastrous.
Obviously, we all want to avoid lockdown.
Is he completely ruling out a second short national lockdown in
all circumstances?
The British public simply deserve clarity.
But with infections rising at pace, it’s not clear what the
actual strategy of the government now is.
It’s all very well talking about camel humps and moon shots.
We need a plan to fully suppress this virus.
Its urgent ministers now fix testing, tracing and isolation to
avoid further restrictions, otherwise we face a very bleak winter
indeed.
