August 2023
It is fantastic news that the Royal Stoke has been selected as one of 30 hospitals to receive urgent and emergency care upgrades worth £13.4 million for a brand-new unit at A&E. The new unit will help ambulance transfers and assessments for surgery, freeing up an estimated 50 beds elsewhere in the hospital. Having lobbied Ministers to find solutions to increase capacity, I am delighted by the announcement.
February 2023
Drug and alcohol misuse comes at a serious cost to our communities and can add significant pressure to local services. In February I therefore welcomed an investment of £2,206,585 to boost drug and alcohol treatment and recovery in Staffordshire. The funding will enable local authorities to recruit more staff to work with people with drug and alcohol problems, support more prison leavers into treatment and recovery services, and invest in enhancing the quality of treatment they provide.
January 2023
I had a meeting, together with neighbouring MPs, with the Minister for Health and Secondary Care, Will Quince MP just before Christmas.
Following calls with the Royal Stoke over the Christmas and New Year period, I will be having a further meeting with the Minister to discuss health care provision in North Staffordshire.
The NHS is one of Britain’s greatest assets and I am committed to keeping it in public hands, free whenever it is needed. It is not for sale. I am determined that we keep investing in our brilliant NHS and, with a strong economy, we can properly fund local health services and make sure that our NHS is there for you and your family. Throughout the pandemic we saw how important the NHS was in keeping us safe and saving lives. It is therefore fundamental that the Government continues to give the NHS the support it needs, so I am pleased that the Government has several plans to address the backlog and deliver our recovery.
In the Autumn Statement, the Chancellor announced that a further £7.7 billion will been given to the NHS in 2024-25, enabling the NHS to work on improving access to urgent and emergency care, reduce waiting times, and double the number of people that can be released from hospital into care every day from 2024. The Government is also making available up to £4.7 billion in 2024-25 for the adult social care system in England, to improve the quality of and access to care for the most vulnerable in society.
I am pleased that spending on health services will increase from £133 billion at the start of this Parliament, to over £177 billion by the end. This is an increase of over £44 billion and = despite difficult financial circumstances, I am proud that the Conservatives have increased NHS investment every year since 2010.
Please also be assured that Leek Moorlands Hospital continues to be high on my radar. The people of the Moorlands deserve high quality modern health care and I will continue to be a loud, clear voice on your behalf to make sure that we have a hospital and hub with the very best healthcare, fit for the 21st century.
I also know that there is much concern for the provision of Ambulance Services across Staffordshire Moorlands. Ultimately, decisions on this are made by WMAS but I will always make sure that your strong views are heard. For example, I met with West Midlands Ambulance Service CEO Anthony Marsh and made him aware of constituents' concerns about the need to retain a presence in the towns of Biddulph and Leek.
Staffordshire and Stoke Integrated Care Board - July 2022
The Health and Care Bill, that passed through Parliament earlier this year (2022), set out plans to put Integrated Care Systems (ICSs) on a statutory footing, empowering them to better join up health and care services, improve population health and reduce health inequalities.
Each ICS is led by an NHS Integrated Care Board (ICB), an organisation with responsibility for NHS functions and budgets, and an Integrated Care Partnership (ICP), a statutory committee bringing together all system partners to produce a health and care strategy. When ICBs were legally established, clinical commissioning groups (CCGs) were abolished.
These changes came in to effect on 01 July 2022.
For further details see:https://staffsstoke.icb.nhs.uk/
