Tom Morrison

I absolutely respect that intervention, and I do wish the hon. Gentleman’s mother a happy birthday. If it were possible, we would all do a rendition of “Happy Birthday”, but we will leave that for another time. This was not my first visit to the hospital—I have been there several times, both as an elected representative and as a patient—but it was the angriest and most emotional I have ever been while visiting it. On our visit, I saw staff and patients’ dignity taken away from them, I saw a building completely and utterly unfit for purpose, and I saw a health system that was left to rot, quite literally, over the years of Conservative neglect now being given only plasters by the current Government. I am not exaggerating when I say that the visit was harrowing. To see staff and patients suffer in buildings that leaked, surrounded by walls that were rotting and floors that were sinking, was truly awful. It painted a stark and terrible picture of the way our health service is being treated by decision makers in Whitehall, with £120 million being spent each year just on mitigating the damage being caused by the hospital’s crumbling estate. This is an incredibly expensive sticking plaster that does not solve the underlying problems, but instead makes things worse. A comprehensive repair of Stepping Hill’s estate would cost just over £134 million, and the Government must commit to providing that amount to get the hospital back on its feet. It would save money in the long term and mitigate the huge risks the estate poses.