Conservative MP petitions himself… again

A number of people have raised with me the fact that local Conservative MP and Government Whip, Robert Largan, appears to have started a petition against himself and his Government.

The cervical cancer screening clinic in Buxton is being forced to close as the NHS in Derbyshire has been unable to recruit a replacement for a retiring consultant.

Apparently Mr Largan has started a petition to bring the service back. You have to admire his chutzpah when he and his Government are responsible for the NHS workforce crisis that has caused this cut in local services.

The NHS in Derbyshire has made it clear that they wanted to recruit a replacement, they just have not been able to find one yet. If they do manage to recruit, it will be nothing to do with Mr Largan’s petition. If he actually wanted to do something about the problem he would get his Government to address the causes they have created.

This isn’t the first time Mr Largan has petitioned himself. He started a petition along with one of his Conservative County Councillors for the return of the 185/186 bus in Harpur Hill. What he failed to mention was that the Conservative Council was responsible for the bus service cuts and they were the only ones that had the power to reinstate it.

They are taking us for fools.

The fact is our NHS is in a crisis created in Downing Street with people waiting hours for ambulances, weeks to see a GP and months for treatments and operations.

This government is responsible for the largest waiting lists in the history of the NHS. There are now more people on NHS waiting lists than the population of New Zealand.

Many of these issues arise due workforce shortages. The NHS currently has 9,000 vacancies for doctors, with a record 133,000 vacancies in total. Despite these shortages, last summer Mr Largan’s Government actually cut the number of medical school places – turning away straight ‘A’ students desperate for a career in the NHS.

This continued shortfall in doctors means this Government is wasting billions of taxpayers’ money on agency staff to fill gaps in rotas.

We are also seeing a complete breakdown in trust between our doctors and nurses and this Government with unprecedented strikes. This Government has gone from clapping nurses to taking them to court. Its abject failure to negotiate a resolution is hurting patients.

In 1997 the last Labour government inherited an NHS on its knees. The next Labour Government will inherit an NHS flat on its face. But like the last Labour Government, we can once again make the NHS the envy of the world.

And we will start with one of the biggest expansions in the NHS workforce in history, including doubling the number of medical school places to 15,000 and creating an additional 10,000 nursing and midwifery placements every year so we have the doctors and nurses we need in our NHS.

That’s what the NHS needs not MPs petitioning themselves to do better.