During a debate on the Queen's Speech, Charles Walker condemns hospital closures in Hertfordshire and calls for a commitment from the Government to use the new mental health Bill to ensure provision of first class mental health services.

4.26 pm

Mr. Charles Walker (Broxbourne) (Con): I notice that we have just under an hour for four speakers, so my speech will take less than 15 minutes.

We have had a good debate. I am delighted that the hon. Member for Warrington, North (Helen Jones) has returned to the Chamber. Her speech was one of the best I have heard in this place, so much so that I should like her to speak at one of my supper clubs. Most of my constituents would find much to enjoy in her speech and much to think about.

I want to talk about health, where it is not all roses in the garden. On Wednesday, I was joined by a number of colleagues from Hertfordshire for a rather bleak meeting with Anne Walker, the new chief executive of Hertfordshire’s two PCTs. Normally, there is a bit of jollity and levity at such meetings, but Hertfordshire’s health economy is facing a grim time over the next few years as the chief executive tries to bring it back into balance. I am sure that in Anne Walker we have a capable chief executive, but it will be a difficult few years for my constituents, regardless of whom they support—whether they voted for me or for the Labour candidate, Jamie Bolden.

Our experience carries a warning for all politicians. Broxbourne and Hertfordshire have been the victim of enthusiastic electioneering. In February 2005, Chase Farm hospital, which although not in Hertfordshire serves many of my constituents, received a visit from the then Secretary of State for Health, now the Home Secretary. We were told that there were great plans to renew Chase Farm, with new services and buildings and a thorough overhaul of that rather tired Victorian hospital.

Unfortunately, after the general election, the situation seems to have changed and Chase Farm hospital has a very thin future ahead. Local people are fighting a valiant campaign to ensure that services, such as A & E, remain at the hospital, but I fear that we may lose that service and the hospital will be run down until it is no longer viable to keep it open.

There was also some enthusiastic electioneering in Welwyn Hatfield in the run-up to the last general election. Hatfield was promised a brand new, shiny hospital straight out of the wrapper, costing about £500 million. Of course, we looked forward to that new hospital because we felt that it was much needed in Hertfordshire. As the site also happened to be in the constituency of a then Labour Health Minister we thought that the two might be linked, but we put such thoughts behind us as uncharitable. However, after the general election there was a new Member for Welwyn Hatfield and we have been told that the hospital will not happen. First, we thought the project would be downgraded to a smaller hospital, but last week we discovered that there will be no hospital at all on the site.

Mike Penning: The proposals for the Hatfield private finance initiative project were all locked into “Investing in Your Health”, which was part of the plan to run down and close facilities at Hemel Hempstead hospital. The sad news is that not only is Hatfield not going ahead, but while I was actually speaking in the House this afternoon, the board of West Hertfordshire Hospitals NHS Trust announced the closure of all acute and all elective surgery at Hemel Hempstead hospital, against the wishes of 85 per cent. of the consultees. It is shameful.

Mr. Walker: I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. It is a great sadness because he has fought tirelessly over the past year and a half to keep the hospital open. He has run an energetic campaign, as was shown by the fact that he presented a very large petition and that 85 per cent. of his constituents have asked that that hospital remain open. It is a sad day indeed.

So Hertfordshire and my constituency have been victims of over-enthusiastic electioneering. We are now left with the Lister hospital and Watford. We were led to believe that if the hospital in Hatfield did not go ahead, which is the case, Watford general would receive some additional investment. We thought that that would be more than £300 million.

Mike Penning: Three hundred and fifty million pounds.

Mr. Walker: We thought that it would be £350 million, but we now hear that it could be well below £300 million. That decision was taken without consultation or any warning. It was just announced at a meeting. That is giving us all cause for great concern. The Lister hospital has fantastic staff and they do an excellent job within the resources that they have, but the Lister hospital too is looking tired. There are problems with the infrastructure and structure there, so investment is needed.

This type of electioneering, whether it is done by the Labour party or even the Conservative party, does bring politicians into disrepute. We really must not promise, for short-term political gain, things that we cannot deliver or have no intention of delivering.

That brings me to the funding of the NHS. Only recently a gentleman in his early 50s, a police officer, came to my surgery. He has secondary bowel cancer. He, his wife and his family are desperate to get him a treatment made by the pharmaceutical company Merk, to help stem the spread of that cancer and perhaps give him a future. That drug is not provided on the NHS; one has to get it privately and it costs between £20,000 and £25,000. There are more of these drugs in the pipeline. I hope that the House will agree that this is a serious point: I am concerned that no matter how much goodwill there is in this Chamber for the future funding of the NHS, the NHS within its current structure and current confines will not be able to find the resources to provide those drugs. It is incumbent on the great brains on the Labour side of the House and the great, huge brains on the Opposition side of the House to provide this country with an NHS that can meet the demands of an increasingly sophisticated user group. And perhaps, in doing that, we need to have more cross-party discussions on the best way of providing these health services to all our constituents, regardless of which constituencies we represent.

I have been speaking for seven minutes, which means that I am going to give hon. Members another six minutes of this, which will come as a grave disappointment to many but is of great delight to me.

I am concerned, but also interested, to hear that there is to be a mental health Bill. I am interested to hear that because mental health is of huge importance to me and my constituents. We have an excellent mental health trust within Hertfordshire, which has seen its resources diminished over the past year. It had to make a £6 million saving last year and it will have to make a similar saving next year. I do understand that within the area of mental health there is an argument for reducing the number of hospital beds and transferring services into the community to destigmatise mental illness, but I am concerned that in our county,St. Julian’s ward in St. Albans is being closed while at the same time we are reducing services in the community; so we are getting a lose/lose situation as opposed to a lose/win situation. I hope that the mental health Bill will reaffirm the Government’s commitment to providing first class mental health services, because there is some concern in Broxbourne that they are being run down and that they will not be able to meet people’s expectation.

On the issue of mental health, like many Members, I have seen some tragic cases that I find very moving, particularly in the area of schizophrenia. There are families who are at their wits’ end when a loved one—a child, a mother, a father, a son or a daughter—is suffering from that disease. When I look at my children, I think, if they are going to get an illness, please God do not let it be schizophrenia, because for many it is a life sentence. It is an illness that never leaves and, at best, can be controlled. For that reason, I hope that we can work collectively, as politicians, to destigmatise that awful illness.

I missed some of the speech from my hon. Friend the Member for West Chelmsford (Mr. Burns), but in the 10 minutes that I caught he made some powerful points. Although, of course, we have an obligation to protect the public, the last thing that we want to do is lock up people with an illness, with no hope of getting out, meaning that they lose all hope of having a future. That would be a huge sadness to me and I could not countenance ever supporting it.

Sir Nicholas Winterton: I have taken a particular interest in this area. Is my hon. Friend aware that many who suffer from schizophrenia benefit hugely from the therapy of a mental hospital? That is because of the serenity, the quietness, the tranquillity and the security of a hospital that specialises in the treatment of schizophrenia. It is a critical disease. We do not want to throw the baby out with the bathwater and close all those wonderful hospitals that do such an excellent job.

Mr. Walker: My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. I am totally opposed to the institutionalisation of people with an illness, but there again, those hospitals provide specialist and loving support. There are nurses, doctors and other staff dedicated to getting sufferers of schizophrenia on the road to recovery.

David Wright (Telford) (Lab): Does the hon. Gentleman agree that we need flexible living settings for people who have mental health problems? We need a range a providers and partners—for example, housing associations and health bodies—to work with us to get those. We need flexible settings so that some people can go back into a hospital environment for a limited time, when they need to, and then out into independent living when they are able to cope with that.

Mr. Walker: I take the hon. Gentleman’s point. In my constituency, there is an excellent charity called Working Together, which provides facilities to help people reintegrate into the community. If someone has had a serious episode of schizophrenia, they cannot just go back to living on their own, but they may not want to be in a hospital. The charity provides an intermediate service: for example, sheltered accommodation in a flat, where, if things get on top of someone, they can get the support that they require to ensure that they do not relapse.

I hope that there is consensus across the House that, when dealing with the illness of schizophrenia we will put the sufferer foremost in our mind. With that, I shall conclude. I have plenty more to say, but I am sure that we will have a wide-ranging debate on the Second Reading of the mental health Bill, which I believe is being published today. I am sure that many Members will want to be in the Chamber at that time to show their support for people with mental health suffering. When we talk about mental health in our constituencies or at functions that we attend, people come up to us quietly to say, “Thank you so much for speaking about mental health. It means so much to us because we get so little support and we feel that there is so little support out there for our family and the people who are suffering within our family.”

4.38 pm

| Hansard