| My Family's Debt to the NHS (More)
Fighting for Patients (More)
Wharfedale Hospital (More)
Children's and Maternity Hospital (More)
Pharmacies
Richmond House Community Care Centre
Day Centre Campaign
Fighting for Patients
I spend a great deal of time pursuing NHS issues - ranging from major campaigns to individual constituent's cases.
I recently led a delegation of Leeds MPs to see Health Minister John Hutton. As a result of our discussions, Leeds Hospitals were allocated an extra £9 million.
This adds to the the enormous extra resources that our local hospital services have received. This has included 850 extra nurses, 120 extra consultants, and over 180 doctors since 1998. Extra facilities include the new Wharfedale Hospital, a start on the £200 million new cancer services, a new orthopaedic treatment centre at Chapel Allerton, and the go ahead for a new Children's and Maternity Hospital.
The following information supplied by the Leeds Teaching Hospital NHS Trust demonstrates the progress being made.
(More About the Progress of our Local NHS)
My Family's Debt to the NHS Repaying my debt to the NHS is one of the reasons why I became involved in politics.
The NHS helped treat me for pneumonia when I was just six weeks old, and repaired a complex arm fracture of a type that left my grandfather severely disabled from childhood in pre-NHS days. More recently it saved the life of my mother-in-law with a liver transplant after she had been given 24 hours to live. It also brought my wife and younger son through a life-threatening condition that developed in late pregnancy.
(More)
Wharfedale Hospital
Our new Wharfedale Hospital opened recently. The new hospital is a tribute to our campaigning over many years – especially on those  occasions when it was threatened with closure. I realise that there was a robust debate over where the hospital should have been rebuilt, but rebuilt it has been. My family and I use the hospital, and I am delighted at the new facilities.
There is still much to do. There are some concerns about the services currently provided in our new hospital. We need to ensure that it is used to its full potential. I am in continual discussions with the Trust. They are examining ways in which more services, such as increasing the amount of day surgery, can be provided at Wharfedale.
(More about Wharfedale Hospital)
Childrens and Maternity Hospital
Hearing the news that the Government had approved an initial £204 million bid for a new children's and maternity hospital was a great moment.
I was honoured to be personally invited by Woman of the Year Jane Tomlinson (who works as a paediatric radiographer at St James's on top of her fantastic fundraising efforts) and parent campaigner Carol Maddocks to celebrate our success with them (pictured, right, at the party).
I have supported the campaign for a number of years, and in 2003 tabled an Early Day Motion in the Commons urging Government backing. More recently, I co-ordinated lobbying of Ministers and briefings to West Yorkshire MPs to get their backing for the bid. As a result, I was able to present Ministers with a letter signed by 23 MPs showing the support across West Yorkshire and beyond.
(More on the Children's Hospital)
Pharmacies
Our campaign to protect local pharmacies against the recommendations of the Office of Fair Trading has been successful. As you may know, the OFT wanted a free-for-all in terms of where pharmacies could be set up. This unregulated approach could have threatened the viability of many local pharmacies. The Government accepted this argument and rejected the OFT recommendations. Thank you if you were one of the 4,000 constituents who signed the petition.
Richmond House
I helped to secure an £800,000 Government grant to convert Richmond House, Farsley, into a cutting edge community care centre for the older people of West Leeds and Pudsey.
It provides a base for NHS and Social Services teams working with older people. It also provides residential beds for older people leaving hospital, and for respite care.
Day Centres
I backed the users of the day centres at Farfield, Farsley, and The Willows, Horsforth, in their successful campaign against proposals to close them.
The centres provide a valuable service for older citizens - providing support, social activitiy and advice.
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