Westminster Hall Debate

Mr. Mike Hall (Weaver Vale) (Lab): I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan (Mr. Turner) on securing this important debate about health inequalities. I have served as a Parliamentary Private Secretary to two Secretaries of State—my right hon. Friends the Members for Darlington (Mr. Milburn) and for Airdrie and Shotts (John Reid). Both were acutely aware of the need to reduce health inequalities, to increase life chances and to improve the care that the health service provides to people from impoverished communities.
A lot has been done to increase funding to the national health service in the past 12 years. One of the Government's major achievements was their brave decision to increase national insurance by 1 per cent., so that we could devote the money to making massive improvements to the national health service. Although one of the primary care trusts in my area was 4.7 per cent. away from target, that spending has achieved some remarkable improvements in the health service.
Today, we have had the report on the Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust and calls to scrap targets, but it would be absolute madness to scrap the two-week target for people suspected of suffering from cancer to see a consultant. It would be absolute madness to remove the 18-week maximum wait for someone to see a clinician. It would be absolute madness to say, "You have to wait as long as you must in accident and emergency." It would also be madness to say that we do not want to prioritise reducing child mortality or deaths from heart attacks, cancer and strokes. It is right to say that we should reduce those, and that is why we have seen improvements in our health service.
I have mentioned that the Halton and St. Helen's primary care trust is 4.7 per cent. away from target, but it still receives £530-odd million to spend each year, and some fantastic things have happened there. We have secured the future of Halton hospital under the Warrington and Halton Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. Not so long ago, people thought that the hospital faced closure, but its business is now absolutely fantastic. The hospital is making massive improvements to day case surgery, so the people of Halton can actually be treated in the borough. There have also been massive improvements in diagnostics. The extension of endoscopy is a massive improvement in the earlier detection of illnesses that can be life threatening.
The hospital now houses the regional renal unit, which is up and running. It provides the best renal services in the north-west—apparently, that is because the water at the hospital is so pure. State-of-the-art activity is going on at the unit, and when I go there, I see people from the area being treated and booking to go back for their regular treatment, because the facilities are state of the art. Another thing that we have been able to do as a result of the current funding is to establish an independent treatment centre on the hospital site. That is fantastic for hip and knee replacements and other such surgery. Wonderful things are happening.
For the past 17 years, I have campaigned to get proper primary health care facilities on the Windmill estate in my constituency, which is the most deprived area in the borough of Halton. Even with its current funding, Halton and St. Helen's PCT will be able to open a brand-new GP surgery on the estate this year. My first ten-minute Bill related to the fact that the single GP on the estate walked away without giving his patients any notice and without any consultation. I have been fighting ever since to make sure that the people in the most deprived part of my constituency get the service to which they are entitled.

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That raises the question of how many more improvements we could make in the Halton and St. Helen's PCT area, if the PCT had the same funding as other PCTs and if it was at target. The answer is that we could make significant improvements. There have been remarkable improvements in bringing PCTs closer to target, because the Government are committed to doing that, but as my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan has said, we really need to up the pace of change.
In another part of my constituency, I have the town of Northwich, which has the Victoria infirmary. The Brunner family donated the site to the people of Northwich for the free provision of national health facilities. The infirmary is part of the Mid Cheshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, together with Leighton hospital, which provides acute care. The Victoria infirmary in the centre of Northwich is an important cottage hospital, but it was threatened with closure.
The Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT is at target, and I want it to stay at target. I am calling not for its funds to be reduced, but for the funding of Halton and St. Helen's PCT to be brought up to the level of other PCTs. I have now secured the future of the Victoria infirmary site. In conjunction with the GPs of Northwich, we shall bring forward first-class primary care and secondary care facilities, and we shall have a 12 or 24-bed facility as an assessment centre, a step-down centre for people who need to be discharged from hospital but are not fit to go home, and an assessment centre for people with long-term disabilities, to see what needs to be done to improve their care.
The one fly in the ointment with the arrangement is that Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT has decided to impose car parking charges at the hospital. Parking was previously free, as it is in the rest of the Northwich area. People will be able to park for free at the hospital for 20 minutes, after which the charge will be £3. That is a substantial increase and a substantial amount of money for people to pay. I congratulate the Northwich Guardian, my friend Dorie Willington and the journalist Gina Bebbington, who are campaigning forcefully to get the Central and Eastern Cheshire PCT to remove the parking charges.
This debate is a wonderful opportunity. I do not want to detain hon. Members, but I fully agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Wigan that the Government's pace of change must improve and that we must get primary care trusts such as Halton and St. Helen's PCT closer to target. As my hon. Friend has suggested, we need an annual debate in the House where we can air the issues, put the Minister on the spot and point out issues such as the level of funding that we think that we are entitled to in my constituency. All that we ask for is fair play, and if that comes about as a result of the debate, my hon. Friend will have done us all a great service.