• PAC medical negligence report: staggering sums lay bare a health service that is “not functioning”
• Lib Dems call for a critical incident to be declared after unsafe maternity unit in Somerset forced to closed
• Cole-Hamilton: Social care being doubly failed by Labour and SNP
• Cole-Hamilton: Both governments neglecting social care

PAC medical negligence report: staggering sums lay bare a health service that is “not functioning”

Responding to the Public Accounts Committee report, which condemned the ‘astronomical’ fees paid to medical negligence lawyers, Liberal Democrat Hospitals and Primary Care spokesperson Jess Brown-Fuller MP said:

These sums are absolutely staggering and symptomatic of a health service that simply is not functioning, leading to frankly dangerous situations.

The Conservative Party’s shameful neglect brought us to this point, but the Labour government’s embrace of dither and delay on social care, maternity reforms and rebuilding our hospitals is prolonging the misery.

To turn this situation around, we need to see ministers move at speed by wrapping up their social care review by the end of the year, implementing the Ockenden report in full and rescuing our crumbling hospitals. To fail on this front condemns more patients to these horrific outcomes.

Lib Dems call for a critical incident to be declared after unsafe maternity unit in Somerset forced to closed

Maternity services in Yeovil are to close for at least six months after a warning from the Care Quality Commission (CQC), a situation that has prompted local Liberal Democrat MP Adam Dance to call for a critical incident to be declared warning that it will leave families in “turmoil”.

The Somerset NHS foundation trust has announced that it will be closing the Yeovil Maternity Unit for six months, including the Special Care Baby Unit. The unit serves more than 1,200 births a year.

These women will instead be sent to Taunton, a maternity unit over 25 miles away and already over capacity in Musgrove Park Hospital, one of the hospitals facing delays following the Government pushing back many projects in the New Hospitals Programme.

The step was taken after the CQC served a warning that maternity services were “failing to meet the regulations related to staffing and governance systems”. Yeovil MP Adam Dance asked a question about the closure at Prime Minister’s Questions today in which Keir Starmer committed to securing a meeting for the local MP with a relevant minister to discuss the issue.

Adam Dance has also been contacted by worried constituents about longstanding issues with maternity services from poor management to unsafe working conditions. He has written to the Somerset NHS Foundation Trust to seek assurances that the service will reopen after six months. The local MP is now calling for a critical incident to be declared at the hospital.

Liberal Democrat MP for Yeovil Adam Dance said:

The closure of this unit at such short notice could have devastating consequences for expectant parents and vulnerable babies. They will be forced to use already stretched services tens of miles away and I, like many of my constituents who have already been in contact, are deeply fearful this could leave families in turmoil.

We need to see some real leadership through this crisis and the relevant authorities stepping up to ensure that no one suffers unnecessarily as a result of this shambolic situation. That means a critical incident being declared immediately so we can get patients and their loved ones the support they need to deal with this.

I will continue to push for a full explanation from Somerset NHS Foundation Trust and NHS Somerset, and I won’t stop demanding a clear plan to restore safe, local maternity care in Yeovil. Our community cannot afford to lose this service for good.

Cole-Hamilton: Social care being doubly failed by Labour and SNP

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton has said that only the Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix the crisis in care ahead of a ministerial statement about UK Government decisions on social care, as he urged both Labour and the SNP to recognise how they have harmed the sector.

A survey conducted by Scottish Care found that 48% of care homes feared the possibility of closure due to Labour’s increase in employers’ National Insurance contributions.

Under Labour’s new immigration plans, care homes will be prevented from recruiting staff from abroad. There are fears this will increase staff shortages and force more care homes to close.

The Liberal Democrats want care providers, including care homes and those providing care in peoples’ homes, to be exempt from the National Insurance hike. The party have long called for a new minimum wage for care workers, making it easier to recruit British staff and tackle chronic shortages.

In Scotland, almost 2,000 people are stuck in hospital every month due to their discharge being delayed. Gaps in care at home or in the community are a key reason for such delays.

SNP ministers have now ditched proposals to centralise social care services, after wasting £30 million and four years pursuing them. Scottish Liberal Democrats were the only party to oppose those plans from the moment they were first announced.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

Hammering social care providers with more costs has led to warnings of closures and even bigger gaps in support. The decision risks making the overarching crisis in our NHS so much worse; it is palpably wrong.

That’s why Liberal Democrats have led the way in calling for social care providers to be exempted from this cruel tax rise. We will keep pressing the Labour Government to do that, but the SNP must also recognise the impact of their own reckless decisions.

Just look at the four years and £30 million they wasted on a bureaucratic power grab of social care- money that could have paid the salaries of 1,200 care workers.

Social care has been doubly failed by the decisions of both Labour and the SNP. Only the Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix care: the UK Government must exempt social care providers from this hike and the Scottish Government must finally invest in the staff and services they have repeatedly neglected.

Cole-Hamilton: Both governments neglecting social care

Scottish Liberal Democrat leader Alex Cole-Hamilton MSP has today said that both the Scottish and UK governments are neglecting social care, as he highlighted the gaps in provision affecting Highland communities and challenged the SNP for their failure to deliver.

Speaking in the Scottish Parliament, Mr Cole-Hamilton asked the Social Care Minister, Maree Todd, whether she recognised that her government had neglected the sector.

He highlighted the SNP’s failure to provide affordable housing to care workers and the gaps in social care funding which have particularly affected areas like the Highlands.

Speaking after the exchange, Mr Cole-Hamilton said:

There is no doubt that the Labour government’s decisions have dealt a huge blow to social care. But people are fed up with the SNP pretending that they haven’t done any damage either.

Under the SNP, staff have been forgotten. They wasted £30 million trying to centralise social care- that was money that could have paid the salaries of more than 1,000 care workers.

In the Minister’s own Highland constituency, there is a dearth of social care, with care homes closing at a rate of knots.

Only the Liberal Democrats have a plan to fix care and save our NHS. Our representatives are bursting with ideas for how to ease the crisis in the Highlands and across Scotland; we’re backing that up with a new and higher national minimum wage for care workers to attract more into the profession.