Got any thoughts about the NHS and the way it is changing? Come and talk to shadow health minister Diane Abbott in our live webchat today (Tues 15 March), 1.15pm - 2.15pm

[KatieMumsnet]

Diane Abbott will be popping (back) to MNHQ for a webchat this Tuesday.

Diane was the first black woman ever elected to the British Parliament in 1987 and has been MP for Hackney North and Stoke Newington ever since, building a career as a parliamentarian, broadcaster and standing for Labour's leadership in the election last year.

Following the leadership election she was appointed Shadow Minister for Public Health, covering a range of issues, including alcohol, children's health, fertility and embryology, maternity services, nursing and midwifery.

If you have a question you'd like to put to Diane, please join the webchat this Tuesday lunchtime, 1.15pm - 2.15pm. If you won't be around then, please post your question here.

[ThisIsANiceCage]

[clams]

Diane, you justified sending your child to private school by citing the GCSE pass rate for black children in Hackney. But the average black family in Hackney does not have a parent who is an MP. Most people see your actions as hypocritical; do you realise that?

[DianeAbbott]

@jugglingjo

Welcome Diane,

I always appreciate your robust, let's get things done, approach, and hope you will apply these to the task of improving maternity services, especially for women in labour ( with a small L ), in this country !

I think it really important to improve maternity services and make them more responsive to women. But I think that they will actually get worse with this Tory "re-organisation"

[DianeAbbott]

@JustTryingToHelp

Please call for a retention of the stability in the NHS that we currently have. I have been listening to the debate on rights to spinal anaesthesia in the UK (excellent Womans hr debate on this). Facts are that we have a great healthcare system (probably best in the world but one flaw is that statistics ,from salaries to safety, are difficult to find:UK figures below were published in late 1980s!). I am a scientist and the dated facts suggest that we have safe established procedures in UK: risks of (avoidable) anaesthetic related deaths are greater than 1 in 180,000 operations in the UK. In sub-saharan Africa the figures range between 1 death for every 500 obstetric operations to 1 in 100 maternal deaths (quite scary). A recent Ch4 newscast on Liberia suggests that 1 in 12 mothers die in childbirth involving anaesthetics. The UK anaesthetists/nurses and many other organisations (Mothers of Africa/WFSA/MSF) are selflessly helping with this (by going out to train nurse anaesthetists: they cant afford clinicians) but if we could lobby for more help it might be possible to turn it around more quickly (Liberia has a female president and she might be able to chip in with some support for the trainees, if Westminster can make her aware of the problem?). So try and appreciate what we have (and what we might loose with the free market experiment on the NHS).

JustTryingToHelp ? thanks for raising this.
You are absolutely right about the NHS. Patient groups, professional bodies and health experts have attacked the plans as high cost, high risk, a danger to the commissioning of key health services, and a distraction from the need to find efficiencies.
As a Shadow Health Minister, I see how important the work being done by health workers up and down the country is. They are often at the heart of our communities, and I am proud to say that my mother was a nurse.
In order to improve people's lives in the poorest and most unstable countries around the world, we need to support community-based health workers and to make the link between international development and health. These are the people confronting some of the biggest challenges we face, like maternal mortality, infant health, TB, malaria and HIV.
The figures you put forward ? that Liberia suggests that 1 in 12 mothers die in childbirth involving anaesthetics- are startling. I would very much like to research this further.

[DianeAbbott]

@clams

Diane, you justified sending your child to private school by citing the GCSE pass rate for black children in Hackney. But the average black family in Hackney does not have a parent who is an MP. Most people see your actions as hypocritical; do you realise that?

All I know is that my son had a less than ideal childhood because his mother was both a single parent and an MP. When he turned 11 I decided to make a decision that was (for once) about him. But it did not stop me from campaigning for better education in hackney. And we now have 5 new secondary schools and results have got much better from the situation I faced 10 years ago.

[NoseyNooNoo]

Diane

What are you true feelings about Michael Portillo. Do you think he is a Tory Toff, a gorgeous lovely guy? Do you seem him away from TV and were you actually friends at school?

[DianeAbbott]

@BecauseImWorthIt

Welcome, Diane!

I'm glad that you have gained an important/senior position in the Shadow Govt. I was delighted that you stood in the Labour Leadership Election, and did vote for you!

I am appalled by what the ConDems are proposing to do to the NHS and I wonder how much you can really hope to stop them?

I suppose that's a bit of a plaintive cry more than a question!

We know that doctors and health professionals are really worried about the bill. Working with them we are trying to take out the worst aspects of it. In fact the BMA (doctors organisation )meets today to ramp up its opposition to what Lansley is doing.

[GORGEOUSX]

Clams I'm glad you stated that - I didn't know Diane had jumped on that wagon. Diane, I object you to discriminating like that about DC. Should we have a survey on every different colour child to determine their chances at GCSE? No, of course not.

I'm an ethnic myself and think it's disgraceful that you would use that to justify the hypocrisy of putting your DC into private schools.

[DianeAbbott]

@LindsayWagner

What DamnYouAutocorrect said.

Also, do you think that the amendments made by the LibDems at conference have even the slightest chance of impacting Lansley's NHS massacre reforms? Is there any possibility that Clegg will act to represent the radical middle, or whatever he calls it - or is he already thinking of the warm, well-upholstered, and (crucially) safe Surrey seat he'll be offered if/when he defects to team Tory?

And what impact, if any, do you perceive Ed M to be having on the national debate on these and other matters? Are you pleased with how things are going for Labour? What would your strategy have been if you'd got the leadership?

LindsayWagner ? great comments.
Lansley is pushing through his Bill despite criticism on all sides: from patient groups, professional bodies and health experts. Even the Tory-led Health Select Committee has criticised the plans, saying they are unlikely to improve patient care. He has ignored 3 out of 4 doctors across the country, who don?t want the changes, and don?t believe they will improve patient care.
So I am sure that he will also ignore the Lib Dems!
Ed Miliband cares greatly about the NHS. He believes health is a key battle ground and is planning a major speech in the next couple of weeks.

[DianeAbbott]

@ohmeohmy

Lansley's plans are bad for doctors and very bad for patients. The frontline workers are not being protected. This govt seems determined to pursue an ill thought out untested policy that will irreparably damage the NHS

What will LAbour do to prevent this happening?

The BMA is meeting today to ramp up their opposition to Lansley's plans. We want to work with doctors and other health professionals to try and torpedo the bill!

[DianeAbbott]

@DamnYouAutocorrect

Hello Diane. I'm guessing you're not a big fan of Andrew Lansley's plans for destroying reforming the NHS, but do you think that the last Labour government opened the door for him in some ways by allowing creeping privatization within the NHS? If you were in charge, what would you do to the NHS right now: keep it exactly as it is, roll back the New Labour changes, or introduce a different set of reforms?

Hi DamnYouAutocorrect. My mother was a nurse. I know that free market values don?t make sense in the context of the NHS. I am firmly against the marketisation of the NHS. I know that reports have been produced that show otherwise, but you will never convince me that the rise in MRSA and hospital based infections were not connected to the privatisation of hospital cleaning.
I think what the Tories are doing is not an evolution of Labour changes, but a revolution. They want to bring free market values to the heart of the values. Many doctors and healthcare professionals believe that this will be the end of the NHS as we know currently know it.

I believe that Lansley?s so-called reforms are actually a ?war against mums.? Tens of thousands of women currently working in hospitals are in primary care trusts are going to lose their jobs. Services that so many women and children rely on will be slashed and the health services which so many of us, as mothers, depend on, will be transformed. You could not have a more frontal assault on women and their families.

[KerryS666]

Hi Diane, As a heart mum I am very concerned about this safe & sustainable review. My daughter is under Leeds (she only just made this journey to Leeds as she was so critical any further and her story would be very different and short) which you will know is only in 1 of the 4 options and is at high risk of losing its services, now this review is about the units been sustainable, so please could you highlight to me as to why Leeds is in the position it is in considering the level of service it provides, Leeds covers 14 million people within a 2 hour drive one of the largest catchment areas within the UK, Surgeons should be moving to population not the other way round. it also offers full childen's care under one roof which means no more transfers and children with multiple health issues can be dealt with within the same centre, new born babies will not be seperated from their mums when they need to go straight to heart icu as Leeds also has maternity uint on site. Many of the other hospitals cannot offer this! Leeds has the room to expand also and offers heart outreach nurse which was not reported in the review ... Would you agree this review is flawed and there are a lot of factual errors against Leeds ?

Thank you

Kerry

[OxfordConcise]

Good to hear about the big Ed M. speech coming up. We need more from him. Will he be at TUC's pro-public services rally on 26 March? Please don't let him be afraid to support the unions!

[DianeAbbott]

@NoseyNooNoo

Diane

What are you true feelings about Michael Portillo. Do you think he is a Tory Toff, a gorgeous lovely guy? Do you seem him away from TV and were you actually friends at school?

I have grown to rather like Michael Portillo after 6 years of working with him. I have never taken him seriously as a Tory Toff because I knew him as a schoolboy! He is definitely a Tory but also a nice guy. His mum (who is a Lib Dem Supporter) once told me that she liked the program, because she liked the way I took down her son a peg or two.

[DianeAbbott]

@OxfordConcise

Good to hear about the big Ed M. speech coming up. We need more from him. Will he be at TUC's pro-public services rally on 26 March? Please don't let him be afraid to support the unions!

Ed will be speaking on the 26th

[DianeAbbott]

@SpeedyGonzalez

Diane, though i don't always agree with what you say, I have always admired the way you combine forthrightness with a cheeky twinkle. As a black woman with a long career in politics I imagine that this can't always have been easy, and perhaps still isn't! What have been your most significant career challenges over the course of your career?

Speedy ? Thanks for your question. I am extremely proud that I was the first black women to be elected to Parliament. I greatly hope that I can inspire others to follow, and that my work in parliament means that the idea of a black woman being in Parliament might not seem so unusual now, as it was when I was elected in 1987.

The greatest challenge of my career has always been handling the demands of being both a single mum and a politician. I?m sure there are many Mumsnet who understand where I?m coming from!

[DianeAbbott]

@KerryS666

Hi Diane, As a heart mum I am very concerned about this safe & sustainable review. My daughter is under Leeds (she only just made this journey to Leeds as she was so critical any further and her story would be very different and short) which you will know is only in 1 of the 4 options and is at high risk of losing its services, now this review is about the units been sustainable, so please could you highlight to me as to why Leeds is in the position it is in considering the level of service it provides, Leeds covers 14 million people within a 2 hour drive one of the largest catchment areas within the UK, Surgeons should be moving to population not the other way round. it also offers full childen's care under one roof which means no more transfers and children with multiple health issues can be dealt with within the same centre, new born babies will not be seperated from their mums when they need to go straight to heart icu as Leeds also has maternity uint on site. Many of the other hospitals cannot offer this! Leeds has the room to expand also and offers heart outreach nurse which was not reported in the review ... Would you agree this review is flawed and there are a lot of factual errors against Leeds ?

Thank you

Kerry

The review must be very worrying for you as the mother as a child that depends on Leeds. I strongly believe that the review is flawed.

[REXD]

I was initially for the safe and sustainable review but having read all the documents. am now more concerned about what will happen after the review than now. The thing hasn't been as thought through as the NHS would have us believe and that is why so many people are in opposition.

Having read the expert reports about the units both Brompton and Southampton are favourites for closure eventhough they were in the top 4 when this is supposed to be about higher quality of care. The experts also had serious concerns about other units picus being able to actually cope with extra cases and they are in several options. What is going on?

I am now more concerned about what will happen after the review than now to be honest. What steps will you/Labour be taking to ensure this is being considered fully?

[DianeAbbott]

@Youremindmeofthebabe

What do you think about the possibility of the government exempting small firms from Maternity leave rules?

I am quite horrified by it all. Although to be fair it's in the long list of proposed government changes I'm currently being horrified about!

I think that exempting small firms from maternity leave rules is wrong. It puts thousands of women's job security at risk

[Porpoise]

Hello Diane. Nice to have you on Mumsnet.

How do you think Ed Miliband is doing as Labour leader?

[GORGEOUSX]

[jugglingjo]

I don't think you were being particularly hypocritical in sending your son to a private school. I've done similar, but different, things to secure a good education for my children (involving gaining places at a faith school)

I wouldn't criticize mothers for the things they do for their children (within reason)

Our children are our children. Some of us really would do almost anything for them !

[clams]

Thanks Diane for tackling my question about your son's education when you could have ignored it. I still think you're on thin ice with justifying that one but I wish you every success fighting Lansley and the Tories as they try to dismantle the NHS.

[GORGEOUSX]

JugglingJo I doubt you tried to deprive the rest of our DC from grammar schools, in doing the best for your DCs - unlike Diane Abbott.

[DianeAbbott]

@donnie

Hi Diane

as someone (meaning me!) who feels mightily jaded and disillusioned with politicians in general, I would like to ask you how hard it has been in such a white, male dominated sphere. Have you encountered discrimination in your position and how did you deal with it? And how can more women be got into Parliament?

thanks

Donnie

All my life I have worked in professions that were dominated by (white) men. Not just politics but media as well. The main thing is to rely on your girl friends for support and remember that other people's prejudices are THEIR problem not YOURS!