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NHS Staffing

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Guildford (Anne Milton) on a powerful exposure of the situation. I know that she would have liked to give way to the Minister, but she could not because of the time limit. The Minister can intervene on me as much as she likes. We are lucky that she is here today; she has detailed knowledge not only from her previous and current roles, but from her intermediate role with the former Chancellor. I should like to start by praising NHS staff, who are extraordinary people. I am not thinking only of doctors and nurses, but I will single them out for praise. It is no secret in the House that five years ago my wife was diagnosed with liver and bowel cancer. A local GP had the skill to find a little lump that gave the alert. She was immediately sent to the local hospital, which is not in Wellingborough but a considerable distance away. I am grateful that the Minister has agreed to come to north Northamptonshire to look at that problem. The trick was to phone up in the morning to say that we were on our way. I did that, and was told that no beds were available. I said, ““Blow this—I am coming anyway.”” By the time we got there, they had found a bed in a different part of the ward and she had the emergency operation. The skill of the 20 people who were involved in that operation and the recovery period was second to none. The same was the case when she had the emergency liver operation and, again, her life was saved by the NHS. I am pleased to say, touch wood, that she is fully recovered. Sitting in NHS hospitals for long periods at her bedside and observing NHS staff gave me an unusual insight into what goes on. There is no question but that the nurses in those hospitals are absolute angels. However, one of the problems that I noted was that on many occasions they were so short of staff that the nurses on duty stayed on for extra hours to cover and help out. They would also put off holidays to come in to look after their patients. That is a testimony to NHS staff based on my personal observations. I do not think for one minute that this is an evil, nasty Government who want to destroy our NHS—quite the reverse. They came to power in 1997 after my side had been kicked out, partly on the basis that there were 24 hours to save the NHS because those evil, terrible Tories had made a complete mess of it. I do not agree with that analysis, but that is what they thought. The Prime Minister, in his role as Chancellor, believed that throwing money at the NHS would solve the problem, and that is what he did. The amount of money going into the NHS in real terms has doubled since 1997, and it is now topping about £100 billion a year. That is equivalent to the amount that we will pay the European Union over the next few years, but that is another issue, which we have been debating in this Chamber for some time. While I am on the subject of the EU—