Prospective Conservative MP for Dagenham and Rainham Sam Holland has hit out at Labour’s Jon Cruddas and Margaret Mullane for what he called their “smoke and mirrors” campaign on the NHS and Queen’s Hospital.
Citing a figure of more than 60,000 waiting for treatment across the Barking, Havering, and Redbridge University Hospital Trust (BHRUT), Jon Cruddas and Margaret Mullane claimed this was the fault of the Prime Minister.
In response, Sam Holland told the Havering Daily, “Labour time and again fail to acknowledge the role a focus on quality and standards plays in the delivery of public services. Under the Chairmanship of Former Labour Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, only this year the Care Quality Commission issued a report explicitly stating that Queen’s Hospital requires improvement in the standard of management and care across multiple departments. Jacqui Smith also Chairs another NHS Trust, University Hospitals Birmingham, where improvements are required. Sadly, at the height of the pandemic, Jacqui Smith deemed it appropriate to appear on Strictly Come Dancing instead of having a laser-focus on helping the front-line there through the pandemic.
Jon Cruddas and Margaret Mullane also failed to highlight the role their Union backers have had in calling strikes which have been deliberately timed to hamper a great national effort to reduce overall waiting times following the Pandemic”.
Speaking of his personal connection with the local NHS and Queen’s Hospital, Sam added, “The outcomes at Queen’s Hospital, and of the wider local NHS, are personal for me. Members of my own family work on the front-line in Queen’s, and members of my family have received end-of-life care at the Hospital. I know how dedicated and professional the front-line staff are at the Hospital and I pay tribute to them and everything they endured to get us all through the pandemic”.
The Government has put record levels of funding into the NHS and is committed to cutting overall waiting times across the country. The Prime Minister has launched the first ever Long-term Work Force plan for the NHS which will see Medical School places, GP’s, and Adult Nursing training places all increase significantly so it has the skills and staffing it needs long into the future.
