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Health Care in London

I am very happy to meet my right hon. Friend to discuss the ambulance situation and to look at the way in which the services in her area are being dealt with. She has spoken to me on many occasions about the issue, and I am familiar with the local circumstances that she faces. She is also right to say that the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire can give no real commitments on these issues. After all, if he is going to rely on the local PCTs—all 31 of them—in London to make decisions locally, and if the only extra funding is to come from GPs' budgets, he is not going to be in a position to make any commitments on anything, is he? We, on the other hand, are making a commitment to an increase of £700 million at a time of financial restraint. Why? Because Labour prioritises the NHS. London now has the biggest hospital building programme in the history of the NHS, with 28 new schemes worth £1.8 billion already open to patients, and another three, worth £1.2 billion, under construction. The Royal London, with a £1 billion scheme, serves some of the poorest communities in London. University college hospital's scheme is worth £422 million. King's college hospital's is worth £76 million. The scheme at Lewisham hospital is for £72 million, and Guy's and St. Thomas's is for £50 million. These are massive enhancements from Labour for London. In the community, the NHS local improvement finance trust scheme has led to 45 new developments in London, worth £371 million. Gracefield Gardens centre in Streatham, the Barkantine in Tower Hamlets, which I have visited, the Heart of Hounslow practice, and Alexandra Avenue health and social care centre in Harrow are all shining examples of the results of our investment in the health of our capital. All offer extended opening hours to patients; all offer a wide range of community services in addition to GPs; and all are delivering what patients tell us they want the NHS to do for them—local services in their local area. Today, advances in medicine and technology mean that more and more patients can be treated and cared for in the area. We need to ensure that the type of care services people get are those that they need. That means change. It is not about freezing services in aspic, as the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire suggests he can do—it takes vision, not the policy of NHS do-nothingism. The NHS in London can continue to do better for the people of London. That is why we have set out the Darzi agenda to make some of these changes. Across the city, the NHS is looking at how best to implement this programme for improving the health and lives of Londoners. It is already concentrating specialist care in centres of excellence. Londoners who suffer heart attacks are now taken straight to the specialist care they need in one of eight heart attack centres, significantly improving their chances of recovery. Creating that was not easy; it took tough decisions. If we had left it to local PCTs, we would not have had a process. It is because we created the Darzi process that changes were made, addressing local fears rather than stoking them up for votes. Last year, a joint committee of all PCTs in London agreed to new stroke and trauma networks based on that model, which will save hundreds of lives. That was fully endorsed by a joint overview and scrutiny committee of all 32 London boroughs, including the Conservative authorities. London's PCTs have invested £20 million in improving stroke care. In the coming months, eight new hyper-acute stroke units will open and standards will be up to the best in the world. We are in the process of creating in London a world-class NHS, whereas the hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire has a "do-nothing" view of the NHS, which will change little or nothing. We also have three new trauma centres, which will be open by April, and that of St. Mary's is to open in October. Ten new polyclinics are open, all of which are receiving excellent feedback from patients. An evaluation project is under way to ensure that the local NHS learns lessons so that the model of care can be improved and rolled out across the capital. By the end of the next financial year, another 20 will be in place. Following Lord Darzi's review, the challenge for local areas is to improve services in the most appropriate way for their communities.