MP Chris Vince demands answers from Tories as further doubts cast on new hospital for Harlow
Health / Fri 20th Sep 2024 at 02:50pm
CHRIS Vince MP for Harlow has today demanded answers from the Conservatives after “years of misleading commitments” over The Princess Alexandra Hospital.
The previous Conservative government’s reckless overspending left a £22bn black hole in the country’s finances claims Labour.
The Princess Alexandra Hospital was included in Boris Johnson’s New Hospital Programme but it has become increasingly clear, say Labour, that a fraction of the funding needed to secure the scheme was allocated by the last government.
Within weeks of the election the Chancellor Rachel Reeves demanded a review into the New Hospital Programme as it “was clear” the last governments’ pledge to build “40 new hospitals” was unfunded and the timescale is undeliverable.
The Member of Parliament for Harlow has pledged to continue to the campaign to deliver a new hospital for Harlow.
Chris Vince MP said: “There is no clearer sign of the damage the Conservatives have done to our NHS, than the crumbling Princess Alexandra Hospital patients in Harlow are being treated in.
Harlow desperately needs a new hospital, but we also need honesty over how a new hospital will be funded and when we can expect it to be completed.
“Like all local people I’m frustrated with the continued delay. The re-building of The Princess Alexandra is long overdue. But the Tories have left a blackhole in our finances and cynically committed to rebuilding without committing anywhere close to the funding required to deliver it.
“I will continue to campaign to get The Princess Alexandra Hospital rebuilt, working with a Labour government to get this done as soon as possible.”
Wes Streeting MP, Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, said: “Chris Vince MP has been a tireless campaigner for a new hospital for Harlow and has made a strong case for this hospital to be a priority.
However, unlike the previous government I am not prepared to mislead local people over the cost and offer false hope about how soon they will benefit from the facilities they deserve.
We are working at pace because I recognise how important it is that we commit to a realistic timetable to deliver the healthcare facility local people need and deserve.
‘We will not play fast and loose with the public finances, nor will we play fast and loose with people’s trust as the previous Government did.”
Chris
2024-09-20 15:29:35
So is one holding onto the past and expending all their energy of what "the others haven't done" or is one providing forward planning to look to the future? Need it be pointed out that the loosers of this political playground tiff are always the people... The people the government tells us it is working for...and is the sole reason it exists.
Adam
2024-09-20 16:00:29
Wait, why is he demanding answers from Tories, he and his party are in power now. They cannot just blame the conservatives like they did in opposition, they really have no clue how to govern at all. It is going to be a long hard 5 years having to put up with the radical student political approach of Chris and the rest of the PLP. Everything is going to be blamed on the 22B black hole they will not show evidence on.
SteveO
2024-09-20 16:05:11
The new hospital will be too late unfortunately for the elderly of Harlow who Chris Vince voted to make colder this winter.
Stuart
2024-09-20 16:23:59
Good old Chris, so you are demanding answers from the Tory’s why they didn’t build a new hospital while they were in office. For the same reason that your party are not building one - No Money! If the hospital is in such a bad condition then surely it would be on the priority building list. You can’t really blame the Tory’s for not building a new hospital, as in the next breath your own Government is saying that there’s not likely to be the money available for this to happen. But if the last Government had spent the money, the so called £22bn black hole would have been even worse, resulting even more benefits being removed by your party. Sorry Chris you can’t have it both ways.
Resident
2024-09-20 16:30:11
Here's a thought, stop building new homes in the area until the necessary facilities and infrastructure are provided. Including, at the very least, an additional hospital, not just a new one.
Jo
2024-09-20 16:39:14
How long is this 'black hole' going to be blamed for rhe pitiful performance od this Government? Change the record Chris, you'll never be forgiven for the way you let your constituents down on the WFA allowance vote, stop trying to deflect attention.
Gary Roberts
2024-09-20 16:48:03
Stop demanding answers from a lost cause and start doing your job as an MP in government. The honeymoon is over so start getting results.
2TierKier
2024-09-20 18:20:07
Gary Roberts----SPOT ON
Eskoman
2024-09-20 19:50:33
People are blaming the current government for exposing the lies of the previous government. Why don't we demand answers from convict Boris on why he promised to deliver a new hospital with no land, no plan and no funding. It's very easy to promise people the earth and treat them like mugs as he and his cronies did, but let's get upset with the responsible people !
Dan
2024-09-20 19:52:12
I think most people don’t really care about the winter fuel allowance, but we voted for change and for an end to sleaze and cronyism. Chris, we all knew that Keir Starmer wasn’t going to be a top-tier leader - We were reminded of that during the leadership debates when Rishi Sunak - Yes Rishi Sunak, wiped the floor with him. Keir Starmer is Prime Minister because Labour promised us that a Labour government would end misrule and end the sordid gift taking and favour giving. Your leader is being called ‘Free Gear Kier’ by Lee Anderson, and I think for the first time ever I agree with Mr Anderson. This is a total mess - Pull yourselves together - You’re wasting our money on pay rises for train drivers - Most people don’t care what the train drivers are striking about this week or if their train is nationalised or not - That is socialist dogma - You’re also sending our money abroad - We can’t afford that at the moment as we have a £20 billion black hole according to your Chancellor - Flashing the cash, (our cash), at International Donor Meetings is so red shoes, no knickers - You prefer our kids and pensioners to go without, so that Keir Starmer, in between attending Taylor Swift freebies, can hold his head high on the international stage. People care about having to wait months for a cancer treatment to begin and about having a decent place to recover in and more critically, not dying on a trolley in a corridor. We want to see change, not watch Keir Starmer enjoying the trappings of office.
Eskoman
2024-09-20 21:20:11
Dan, you've covered many many topics in your comment, unfortunately not one of which has a bearing on the topic of the article, I.e. a new hospital. Did you mean to comment on a different article? You haven't mentioned hospital once??
DP
2024-09-20 21:48:32
Back in the early days of Harlow New Town when the Princess Alexander Hospital was built it was a state of the art hospital. No one envisaged how big Harlow and the surrounding areas were going to get in such a small length of time plus Stansted Airport has expanded and the M11 has been built. PAH as it stands today would never be able to cope should there ever be a major incident. We desperately need a new hospital twice or 3 times the size built just to bring it up to CDC requirements.
Tony
2024-09-20 22:58:43
some off us remember how much det labour left this country in when they were last in power so this line they are using won't last long all ways said be careful whot you wish for
Seamus
2024-09-20 23:20:32
When the junior doctors were given a 22% pay increase recently, Labour did not include ANY new working conditions to improve working practices. When Wes Streeting, (Labour health minister) discussed the nhs last week he said "the tories threw too much money at the nhs without demanding new working practices". A few days ago upon settling the Aslef train drivers strike with higher pay, Labour admitted they had not asked for ANY changes in working practices. It seems as though Labour are very selective on value for money, appeasing the unions and getting freebies but if you're a pensioner, they don't want you or your problems. As to blaming the last party, Mr Vince seem's to forget just how many hospitals/trusts, are still tied in to the very very expensive PFI contracts brought in by Tony Blair. Start standing up for Harlow Mr Vince or simply step down!
Angry of Harlow
2024-09-21 04:46:29
The current Labour administration are blaming most of their decision making on a fictitious 22BN shortfall. The FT made a freedom of information request for details of this shortfall and it was denied ! The ‘real’ unspoken issue is the Gold-plated public sector pension shortfall costing taxpayers £208bn. I guess there will be no mention of that in the budget !
Mr D
2024-09-21 06:12:38
Wow, just wow. People bleating about "stop blaming the tories" and in the same breath talk about "the debt we were left with under the last labour government"!? The right wing media have done a proper job on this country haven't they! The last prime minister was an investment banker at the time of the 2008 financial crisis and played his own significant role in crashing RBS and other banks that created the mess in the first place. Have we forgotten the 14 years of austerity and cuts to services whilst the tories propped up banks with taxpayer money and the sold those shares at a loss? The months of no street lights at night that caused a massive spike in night time crime? Robert Halfon had 14 years, Chris Vince hasn't had 14 weeks yet!
tony
2024-09-21 06:39:56
Every government has choices - This government has put striking train drivers ahead of decent healthcare.
Dave
2024-09-21 07:09:58
At the election the most important issues for voters were 1) The cost of living 2) Health & 3) The economy in general. On the cost of living, there has been no real news - There has been a round of Public Sector Pay Rises which is going to have an inflationary effect for the rest of us as they start to ‘Flash the Cash’ and we’ll likely be paying more on our mortgages for longer, Pensioners are going to have a little less money to spend, but that won’t make up for the multi-year pay deals. On health, the NHS has been told to reform or die and our nurses, the backbone of the NHS, are still on poverty wages - And on the economy in general, UK consumer confidence tumbled in the last month. Good work Keir! - I’m really starting to tire of your adenoidal voice. I don’t care about you being able to go to Arsenal matches or what you look like in your new freebie slacks - I care about the future of our country. Give us our hospital.
Nicholas Taylor
2024-09-21 08:36:51
Back in 2019 I believe the hospital board was fooled into thinking that the government would stump up the money to build 40 new hospitals and took the decision to go with their preferred option to build a new hospital near to Junction 7A. They now need to present to the Labour governmentn a credible plan B, one that will see a new hospital built on the current site, costing hundreds of millions of pound less than building a new hospital in the middle of a field. Let us not get fooled in to thinking that building a new hospital will improve services by itself, what is needed is more staff. As evidence of this, patients at the new Lister House have not seen any improvement in services despite the building costing £9 million.
Sandra
2024-09-21 09:41:44
Says the man who's resigning and costing further thousands of pounds for another by election to be held. Hypocrit
charlie
2024-09-21 16:36:24
When I was working and we were having a complete restructure of our services and a complete overhaul altogether, we were in a meeting where our boss asked one of the employees, if they had sorted out something which should have been done. The employee said that there had been problems. The boss quickly rounded on the said employee and said, don't come to me with problems but solutions. Chris Vince should do the same, we don't want to hear of problems, supposedly caused by the previous Government, but what solutions he and Labour have in place or are going to have in place. And Labour keep mentioning this billions of pounds black hole. Please enlighten us on this black hole to prove it exists, which I extremely doubt it does.
Henry
2024-09-21 23:37:19
Vince is a Starmer puppet. Don’t expect him to do anything during his term in office that might prevent him from licking Starmer’s ****.
Tommy
2024-09-22 09:32:00
So this morning, I’m reading that the Crown Prosecution Service acknowledges it twice failed to prosecute Mohamed al Fayed over sex abuse claims, for an alleged indecent assault against a 15-year-old girl in 2008 and for an alleged rape in 2013. And then I see that Keir Starmer was appointed Chief Prosecutor and head of the Crown Prosecution Service in 2008 - A post that he held until guess when? 2013! Then I see that Education Secretary, Bridget Phillipson got £14,000 from Lord Alli to pay for two events, but denies one ahead of her 40th was a birthday party. This isn’t the change that we voted for - We have been severely hoodwinked. We’re not going to get anything built if this lot spends the next 5 years paying back their patrons and covering their sleaze.
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