Richard Spring MP
Member of Parliament for West Suffolk

I have just been in the chamber of the House of Commons, speaking in support of my parliamentary colleague, John Gummer, MP for Suffolk Coastal, who secured a debate on the subject of the NHS in Suffolk.As all the Conservative MPs in Suffolk have recently signed a letter to the new Chief Executive of the Suffolk PCT, this was a good opportunity for us to restate the case to the Health Minister, Andy Burnham, that Suffolk is not getting a fair deal under the NHS funding formula. We have one of the oldest populations in England – one in five is over 65 - and yet the money we receive from the Government does not reflect this and instead is considerably below the national average.We had the opportunity to ask the Minister: Is it any wonder that every NHS organisation in Suffolk is suffering with millions of pounds of deficits because we don’t get the money we need, or indeed, the money we deserve.

We raised important points such as the long list of threatened community hospitals, the shortage of carers in Suffolk and the difficulty of signing up with an NHS dentist.

Regrettably, there appears to be a correlation between political representation and the closing of community hospitals. All the closures, barring a few in Liberal Democrat seats, have been in Conservative held seats. As with so much with this Government, money flows to areas, especially metropolitan urban areas in the North, where its political support is strongest.

I told the Minister that we have a genuine passion about this huge problem. I paid tribute to the staff in Suffolk. The collapse in the morale amongst our wonderful doctors, nurses, ancillary workers and carers is devastating and I wanted him to know this.

Hopefully, if we all keep the pressure up on the local NHS management and the Department of Health, we might just have a chance of redressing the unfortunate imbalance in health funding in Suffolk.

But I am not holding my breath…  

On some estimates the number of people administering our NHS is greater than the number of beds; whatever the exact figures, there is virtually nobody who actually works in the NHS as a nurse or doctor who does not think that the NHS bureaucracy is unaccountable and out of control. 

Manning tables in my constituency, as part of a nationwide NHS Action Day on Saturday, asking people to sign a petition about NHS cuts, the enthusiasm to participate was extraordinary. In Suffolk, it is no wonder. Community beds are under threat, nurses are being sacked, services withdrawn and wards being closed – people are rightly disgusted by what is taking place, as I am. 

One constituent told me that the Health Secretary, Patricia Hewitt, was like the last Tsarina visiting Potemkin villages in pre-revolutionary Russia – with no idea or sense of reality of what is happening in the NHS at grassroots level. 

The destruction of NHS services has happened not because of more money but because of a culture of interference, target setting and sheer incompetence starting in Whitehall and spreading like a bureaucratic virus through to the regions and health trusts. 

Next month, along with other Suffolk MPs and councillor leaders, I shall be meeting the head of the new (again!) Suffolk Primary Care Trust, Carole Taylor-Brown, to discuss how the £64.5 million NHS deficit in the county can be reduced without drastically cutting services further. My parliamentary neighbour, Tim Yeo, and I will also be seeing Patricia Hewitt soon to explain to her personally the extent of the crisis we are experiencing in Suffolk. 

We will continue to fight this terrible attack on our NHS services, which is entirely being driven by a financial shambles unprecedented in the history of the NHS. 

People deserve better and they now really, really feel this.   

Alzheimer’s is one of the great problems of our age. Endless articles advise on eating certain types of food and taking various supplements to keep it at bay. It is certainly a very mysterious disease.

My mother had three siblings and all four lived to a ripe old age. One, however, was stricken with Alzheimer’s from about the age of 70. Having seen at first hand the consequences of this disease, I always support any campaign to raise awareness of this disease and its effects.

That is why I was happy to take on the role of Patron of the West Suffolk Alzheimer’s Society in my constituency.

It would be interesting to know the real reason why the Government decided against a drug which could be helpful in treating the disease in its early stages. Those who have taken it certainly believe this. 

Is it really because it is clinically without value? This is not the view of sufferers and their families. Perhaps it is due to the massive funding crisis within the NHS at present. The difficulty is, knowing the way this Government operates, we will probably never know the real truth. 

Whatever the reason, we are going to have to face the fact that with increased longetivity of life, this disease will come more and more to the forefront of public attention.