---

Access to NHS Services

Thank you, Mr. Deputy Speaker. I shall simply agree with my hon. Friend the Member for Worsley (Barbara Keeley) that that is a huge development in her constituency, as in mine. There have been tremendous achievements. We have put in place incentives for doctors to do more to improve access—the point of my hon. Friend’s intervention—with the new GP patient survey directly rewarding those doctors who meet their patients’ needs. [Interruption.] We will publish the document this month. The problem with publication is that the response was so high—2 million patients responded—that we needed a little longer to get the document into a fit state for publication. Last weekend, the Prime Minister and I visited the Churchill health centre in Kingston, which is now open every weekday night until 8 pm and from 9 am till 12 midday on Saturday mornings. The centre does not provide such access because it is a national pilot or because it is in receipt of special funding; it is simply responding to the needs of its patients. The business case is clear, and the local personal medical services contract with the PCT provides for the practice to develop its service in this way. We have invested more money in GPs through the GP contract, but this has been more money for better services. The quality and outcomes framework part of the contract pays GPs according to how effectively they care for their patients. This includes preventive work like gauging blood pressure more regularly. The contract also incentivises better access. There are now around 90 NHS walk-in centres and 46 NHS treatment centres, including six commuter walk-in centres, offering free advice and treatment to all comers, without registration or an appointment. The centres are easy to access and they are open 365 days a year. They make a particular difference in improving services for the most vulnerable. We are closing the gap between GP referral and treatment times, so that waiting times are at an all-time low and more people are benefiting from earlier relief of symptoms, less anxiety and more convenient care. We have also made it easier for patients to choose where they have their treatment. Patients needing a referral for elective care can now select from four different hospitals. Greater choice leads to better local services, and by making sure that funding follows the patient we have stimulated the development of more responsive, patient-centred services. One million people are seen by the NHS every 36 hours, and 1 million additional operations are now carried out each year. The maximum out-patient waiting time is now 11 weeks for over 99 per cent. of patients. In-patient waiting lists are down by 476,000 since 1997, to the lowest figure since comparable data were first collected. The average wait for in-patient treatment is now six weeks. Virtually nobody is waiting more than six months for an operation. Cataract operation waiting times have fallen from two years to just three months, and waiting times for heart operations are also down to less than three months. Almost all cancer patients are now treated within a month of diagnosis, while over 99 per cent. of suspected cancer patients are seen by a specialist within a fortnight of being urgently referred. In 1997, over a third of all suspected cancer patients had to wait longer than two weeks. The service has been transformed since 1997, and this achievement has been a Herculean feat. I do, however, recognise that the financial turnaround and the reform programme have been delivered at some cost to staff engagement and public confidence. While those who use the NHS testify in ever greater numbers to its excellent treatment and improved resources, the public as a whole is not yet persuaded. The latest survey by the Healthcare Commission independently questioned 80,000 people with recent experience of in-patient treatment, and 92 per cent. found that treatment either excellent, very good or good, and only 2 per cent. found that it was poor.