Got a question for Wes Streeting, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care?

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,

Next week we’ll be back in Westminster to put your questions to the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, Wes Streeting MP.

His brief covers some big areas that we know are really important to Mumsnetters - including maternity care, access to GPs and dentists, mental health services, social care, public health, and how we keep the NHS sustainable in the long term. If you’ve got a question you’d like me to ask, please post it below.

As ever, one question per user please and keep it civil. We’ll be tight on time, so please keep questions short and sharp, so I can get through as many as possible.

We’ll close the thread on Wednesday pm - so do get your questions in before then.

Thanks,
Justine

What would you like to say about the terrible case of Valerie Kneale, the 75- year-old woman who was admittted to Blackpool Hospital in 2019 following a stroke and subjected to such a brutal sexual assault that she died from her injuries? No one has ever been charged for this offence, but last week's inquest revealed a startling degree of negligent incompetence amongst hospital staff, together with an equally chilling degree of indifference. It's no surprise that this was also the hospital where nurses were jailed for drugging patients on the stroke ward. How prevalent do you think this level of care - or lack of it - is within UK hospitals? And do you agree that poor Mrs Kneale's 'treatment' further serves to underline the fact that women should never be subjected to an unnecessary male presence on any ward in any NHS Hospital ever?

When do you plan to tell my colleagues and I what is happening with our jobs? We’ve (at an ICB) been living in limbo since the sweeping announcement of cuts - there’s been no thought or consideration to the stress this has caused / is causing, it’s horrible and not conducive to a good working environment.

Will the MPs be getting covid vaccines? They have ventilation and HEPA filters on the parliamentary estate unlike schools and hospitals. Very few people are eligible for vaccines and the latest covid wave is advancing

Same question from me but NHSE based.

Also - do you regret the attention grabbing headlines that you deliberately sought earlier this year around the abolishment of NHSE when all these months later all that has happened is senior leaders leaving with huge pay offs?

As a late diaganosed ADHDer, who needs to resolve my hormone and some weight issues before I can try the meds again. I've been shocked at the complexity of the current nhs or right to choose routes to diagnosis. All the referrals, form filling, wait lists etc.. are horrible for some one who actually has ADHD, with very little help or advice available. Then once diagnosed, all the meds say they are to be given alongside counselling, no counselling is offered alongside. The meds were currently unsuitable for me so I went to the GP asking for ADHD counselling only to find no specific ADHD counselling available via the NHS. Just very limited period generic counselling. What are you doing to improve things for those struggling to get a diagnosis and what more are you doing to help thosed diagnosed to access counselling or advice specific to adhd issues?

I am still waiting for 2 appointments, one heart the other ENT. I've been waiting 19 months so far for 1st consultancy apt, so even further wait for actual care, however long that may be. When is the NHS going to be improved? I understand tories ruined the NHS, but something has to get better.. it's dangerous being ill in the UK now. It's over a year since been in power and my local hospital is getting worse, not better.

One thing I am impressed by -working in education - is that this government is actively seeking the views of affected stakeholders, profs and families before committing to strategy; there have been multiple calls for evidence and opinion. It does feel like a more consultative considered government than we have had before - but this can be perceived (or spun) as vacillating if the public doesn't understand what is happening. I feel like the media messaging of the government is really awry.

They would have to fix the making of the appointments first, otherwise you are fining people who quite often are notified of the appointment by a letter which arrives after the appointment date!

If I thought for one minute Wes Streeting gave a single fuck about women, the NHS and the health of the Nation then I’d ask him a million questions but as it stands I’m not a fan of pissing into the wind.

Another question from me. With the number of missed hospital appointments rising, why is it so difficult to get in contact to rearrange? A friend of mine has had an appointment come through for her 94 year old mum, however my friend is away so can’t take her. Her mum also needs someone to stay with her afterwards so can’t go in a taxi.

Said friend has called the number on the appointment letter several times a day for the last 10 days but nobody answers, it just rings off. She has called the hospital switchboard who also didn’t pick up. My friend is actually taking a half day off work to go to the department in person to reschedule.

It shouldn’t be this difficult to cancel/rearrange an appointment but it is. You can see why people don’t attend, they have probably tried every way possible to get in contact with no joy and have given up. In the times of texts, emails and WhatsApp why is there so much reliance on an old fashioned telephone system which needs an actual person to be available to answer calls.

I would like to know what Labour intend to do about the fracturing of vital health services, as they are put out to tender to companies such as Virgincare and HRCG.
In Wiltshire, where I live with my son who has complex needs, children's health was taken over by Virgincare in 2016. In 2020 this contract was then taken over by HRCG.
Since 2016 we have seen a deterioration of this service as it has become more fractured, with services which used to all be in one centre, split over several different hospitals. As an example, my sons requires orthotics... this service was taken over by an NHS adult orthotics service within Chippenham hospital, the therapists had no experience of dealing with young people with learning disabilities.
Physio was taken over by Virgincare in a new facility in another area
The communication between physio and orthotics was so poor, that my son waited 2 years for appropriate orthotics input... by which time he required a paediatric orthopaedic consultant, under yet another service, at Great Western Hospital...they deemed the service he had had thus far, so poor that he would need to start the entire process again, under their care. This will mean it has taken over 3 years for a young boy with complex needs and learning disabilities, to receive appropriate care... during which time he has seen 8 different professionals in 5 different hospitals, been traumatised by the lack of consistency and specialist care and his legs have deteriorated.
As a person who works in education supporting children with SEND, I have also seen this fracturing of services lead to a huge fall off in speech and language and CAMHs... all at a time when children with communication difficulties and mental health issues are at an all time high. The criteria for referral has become stricter, wait times are longer and the lack of a joined up service has huge real life impact to the most vulnerable children and young people who are suffering.

Again, my question was addressed to Wes Streeting....

However, in response to your comment: the current appointments system is not fit for purpose - although there are pockets of excellence with efficient online systems, choice and timely notification.

There is the significant cost of people missing appointments - not least to the patients themselves. All behavioural theory suggests that people do not value things which are free, perhaps a fine for non-attendance would focus minds. I have a DC doing medical training where entire clinics can have no patients because no one has turned up: hours of consultant and trainee time wasted. This needs to be addressed. I'm asking Wes Streeting whether fines for non-attendance is a solution. Others are free to ask about other solutions.

Two words...................Royal Mail

There is a huge amount of pressure for 100% attendance at schools, yet according to DfE’s own stats, the main driver of absence is illness. Why don’t schools take some responsibility for this, instead of blaming the parents for their child’s reduced attendance, when parents have little control over their child picking up an illness at school? Schools have a responsibility to create a healthy environment for children to learn in.

Since Florence Nightingale’s time, it has been known that good ventilation reduces the spread of airborne viruses. Why do schools not invest in ventilation systems? or air filters that clean the air when it’s too cold to have the windows open?

Why were these measures not invested in, in 2020 with the emergence of a new airborne virus (covid)? It is no surprise to anyone paying attention that covid continues to surge and that over 111,000 children in England and Wales now have long covid. The narrative has continually been pushed in the media, regarding children, about ‘lockdown harms’ and ‘lost learning.’ Nobody doubts there were harms to some with lockdowns, but if you try to suggest there is harm to children by being repeatedly infected by covid, it is assumed I am quoting disinformation, when the 111,000 figure for children with long covid is an official ONS stat, and is there on the website for the official UK charity Long Covid Kids.

The media silence on this must be broken, and children deserve a healthy environment to learn in without repeatedly becoming sick in an unhealthy school building, and then their parents’ being penalised for it!

Where are the air filters for schools?
#CleanAir4Kids

What are your plans for mental health care? If you are sectioned, you are held on a ward with no therapies, just medication options. Seen by a psychiatrist once a week. In the community, waiting lists are horrendous and the support is minimal.
I hear voices and see visions who tell me to
kill myself and others. My MH team will not visit me at home as they say I am a danger. However they say I’m not sectionable and leave me at home with my family who feel in danger. How can this be acceptable?

With each covid wave, an additional tranche of people get long covid. The latest GP survey suggests over 6 million people here think they have/potentially have long covid. Before ONS survey stopped, 50,000 children a year here were getting long covid. How is this increasing healthcare burden being planned for and costed? Are there plans to try to reduce prevalence of airborne viruses in places like healthcare and schools to help reduce the cost and reduce impacts on health, education, workforce and economy?

Why would it be so difficult to move to a European system? My daughter lives in France and has access to excellent health care. This is the reason she will never come back to the UK. My other DC is about to leave the UK permanently, for several reasons, but access to health care is one of them.

if you were the prime minister, what would be three key pieces of legislation you’d implement to make the biggest difference? Extra points if you can explain how they’d be funded, but I’d really just appreciate some blue sky/ambitious/hopeful ideas (this thread illustrates the doom and gloom encompassing the country).

Why is your government making it so hard for people to get covid vaccines?

I’m severely immunosuppressed (shielded, still eligible for twice yearly covid jabs myself) and while my household is eligible for flu jabs, to protect me, they are no longer able to get covid vaccines (despite covid being a much more serious prospect for me).

I appreciate that it’s a non-sterilising vaccine, but it reduces viral load/length and severity of illness etc so makes it easier to protect me from catching it from them. (Not to mention all the benefits to them from the vaccines; the long term side effects of covid are being detailed by study after study and are extremely worrying).

I can’t even get my ten year old vaccinated privately as private vaccines are only licensed for 12+.

Covid vaccines need to be done regularly to offer a good standard of protection, partly due to waning immunity and partly due to the constant development of new strains. My kids have had their initial doses, as the gov initially vaccinated them to protect me, but these vaccinations were so long ago that they now offer limited benefits.

What possible logic is there to stopping people from vaccinating for covid if they want to?

I do everything I can to keep me and my family safe from covid (masks, hepa at home, avoid high risk environments etc) but my doctors don’t mask, the air in medical settings is a viral soup and the gov restrict access to the vaccines that would help us stay healthy - why?

Even if you don’t want to provide them on the NHS why not make sure private access is available so people have a choice?

It’s been over 5 years of living massively restricted lives for people like me and our families, please, please help us get back to a more normal life by providing the vaccine to all of our households again.

(Note - won’t be responding to covid deniers/anti vaxxers who think I’m awful for vaccinating my kids, so feel free to save your time and energies responding to my post).

I would like to understand the rationale behind the restructures in NHSE and the ICBs. NHSE is being absorbed into the DOH with the majority of redundancies happening at ICB level where the responsibility for commissioning, quality, performance and transformation sits. The total redundancy package is expected to total £1b and will flood the market with many people that have matched skill sets so will likely struggle to find jobs and then require welfare payments. This will increase the burden on tax payers, plunge lots of people into poverty while we are in the middle of a cost of living crisis. The situation is ridiculous and poorly thought out. It has distracted many and actually taken away time from service delivery. Has though been given to the support people impacted will need.
The 10year health plan and upcoming cancer plan have many reccomendations to improve outcomes. How is he expecting the NHS to deliver the strategy shifts without adequate commissioner support?

Why do integrated care boards deny people continuing healthcare funding?

The NHS ten year plan relies a lot on the promise of AI and tech. Is there a plan B if the technology does not deliver? Why are trusts being told to cut budgets aggressively and at the same time improve services and waiting lists?

Why haven't NICE updated advice for girls and women with painful periods (it's same as I was told 50 years ago); why is effective local anaesthetic not offered for cervical smears (it's not 'uncomfortable', it's excruciating for some women); why are women expected to put up with pain when going through medical procedures (when men aren't)?

Why can’t I get an NHS Dentist?

Given the overwhelming evidence that clean air reduces the spread of airborne, and even droplet diseases, why has the government not introduced clean air measures in healthcare settings to protect patients and staff?

Various Labour MPs highlighted the importance of ventilation in opposition - when will we see meaningful action now they are in government?