Ben Maguire

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Dr Huq. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Torbay (Steve Darling) on securing this debate. Following the Chancellor’s spending review announced in the House today, I am appalled that Cornwall and the wider south-west have been seemingly overlooked yet again, with Swindon the closest place to get a mention. Hospitals such as North Devon district hospital in Barnstaple, which serves thousands of my constituents, are crumbling before our eyes, as is the Camelford GP surgery. Our constituents deserve to get appropriate care when they need it and, crucially for those living in rural areas, where they need it. With the recent cuts to bus routes such as the numbers 11 and 12 by the previous Tory-run council, residents of Bude, Launceston, Padstow and many other towns do not have a direct public transport route to their cancer appointments at Derriford hospital. Those routes urgently need Government funding. Our Liberal Democrat policy aims for every cancer patient to start their treatment within 62 days of an urgent referral, but for many cancer patients in Cornwall, disruptions to vital transport links make that much more difficult. All the while, the number of cancer patients waiting over four months for treatment more than doubled between 2020 and 2023 under the previous Tory Government. In comparison with the plans laid out today in the spending review, the Liberal Democrats would invest in a rural fund for our GPs, dentists and pharmacists so that, for example, my nine-year-old constituent Sophie would not need to wait 12 hours at A&E in Treliske with a tooth infection. That sort of investment would significantly reduce the number of visits to our hospitals in the first place. At the same time, we would tackle the fundamental issues that hold back our social care system; solve the care crisis with cross-party talks; introduce a fair deal for our carers, with a higher wage and a new royal college of care workers; and, finally, get our NHS back on track. We owe it to our brilliant NHS staff and our patients across the south-west.