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Select Committee’s Benefits Sanctions Inquiry Underway

On Wednesday 7th January, the Work and Pensions Select Committee, of which I am a member held our first oral evidence session for the benefits sanctions inquiry.  This is the inquiry that Iain Duncan Smith, the Work and Pensions Secretary, didn’t want to happen, and an inquiry that I have been arguing is essential for […]

Royal Oldham Hospital Visit: A&E staff under pressure

In the week that fourteen hospitals declared ‘major incident’ status closing their A&E doors to many patients, I visited the Royal Oldham Hospital’s A&E department to see first-hand how local staff are coping with the pressure. I was very impressed with the staff I met in A&E on Monday, especially the way they are coping with […]

Access to GP Services

Many constituents have contacted me in recent months about problems accessing local GP services. I am aware of specific concerns in the Saddleworth area, but please do complete my local GP access survey to let me know how services are in your area. The survey should take less than 5 minutes to complete. I will […]

Voting to Protect the NHS

Seeing the increasing pressure local NHS services are under, I voted in support of a Private Member’s Bill to repeal the worst parts of the Coalition Government’s Health and Social Care Act, which opened up services to compulsory competition. The Bill was introduced by Labour MP Clive Efford on 21st November. The Tory and Lib Dem government has forced hospitals to open themselves up […]

Questioning the Prime Minister on Mental Health Services

Yesterday (5th November) the Health Select Committee published its report into Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services.  The report concludes that there are serious and deeply ingrained problems with the commissioning and provision of children’s and adolescents’ mental health services.  These run through the whole system from prevention and early intervention through to inpatient services for the […]

‘Whole Person Care’ and the Time to Care Fund

The NHS is one of our greatest achievements but it’s struggling under the coalition government which has wasted billions on an unnecessary top-down reorganisation. One of the issues that local people regularly talk to me about is their struggle to see a GP, particularly in Saddleworth. The nurses and doctors that serve our area do […]

Calling on David Cameron to cut GP waiting times

I have launched a petition calling on David Cameron to guarantee patients an appointment with a GP within 48 hours across Oldham and Saddleworth. David Cameron scrapped Labour’s guarantee of an appointment within 48 hours and now 60 per cent of patients say they can’t see their GP within two days. Nick Clegg and the […]

Join the People’s March for the NHS

Andy Burnham MP set out the choice that the British people face on the NHS,  choice between the Tories who have taken the NHS backwards, forcing services to be put out to tender, and Labour who will protect the NHS. The Tories have broken the promises they made at the last election; they have wasted £3 […]

Government avoid scrutiny on DWP inquiry

The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) this week finally published Matthew Oakley’s report into sanctions. The report highlights systematic problems in the way the government administers and imposes benefit sanctions, including disproportionate burdens on the most vulnerable, something I have raised in Parliament on numerous occasions. I believe that for the DWP to conveniently publish the […]

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