The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 5 November 2020.
Ministers know that we won’t get on top of the virus unless we see a better performing system. Despite the flurry of government announcements on testing this week we haven’t heard a single proposal on how they are going to fix contact tracing.
It is absolutely vital they use this time in the second lockdown to finally fix test and trace.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 17 September 2020.
Four months after the test and trace system was set up it is a huge concern that performance continues to go backwards.
The Government advice has been clear throughout that relaxing lockdown will only be successful if we have a fully functional test and trace system but instead we see it on the verge of collapse.
Perhaps the biggest problem is that people cannot get tested which means thousands of people are not going into the system in the first place. Ministers must get a grip and fix testing now.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 20 August 2020.
This incompetent government is failing to improve test and trace. In a whole range of measures, from the time it takes to return tests, to the percentage of people who are contacted who have been in close contact with a person who tested positive, things are going backwards. For a quarter of all tests to take longer than 72 hours to get results back is a worryingly poor performance.
In the week that NHS Providers said track and trace was failing, it seems nobody in the Government has yet picked up responsibility to turn things round. It beggars belief that the head of test and trace has now been given more responsibility by the Government.
Comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 20 August 2020.
[Commenting on the Royal College of Midwives survey that shows midwives are missing meals and toilet breaks]
This is deeply concerning and shows not only how our amazing midwives go above and beyond every single day but also how they are being let down by a Government that has simply failed to deal with the chronic workforce shortages in the NHS.
We are short of 2,500 midwives in the NHS in England which, against an overall staffing shortfall of over 100,000, is forcing staff to do more and more and putting them under ever increasing strain.
The Government needs to come up with a credible staffing plan otherwise we risk losing many of these dedicated people to burnout.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 13 August 2020.
All signals are pointing towards a growing and alarming backlog of clinical need with patients waiting longer for operations and diagnostic tests. Waiting times were dire before the pandemic and we are reaching some worrying new lows. Especially concerning is that the low number of people starting cancer treatment after attending national screening programmes, which indicates that people also aren’t able to access screening or quick treatment. This is incredibly concerning when we know that early diagnosis and treatment is crucial to saving lives.
We can’t ignore the fact that there are undoubtedly patients not getting help who may desperately need it. We supported the lockdown to suppress this horrific virus but the far-reaching consequences for wider health outcomes must not be ignored.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 12 August 2020.
Nurses have been at the heart of the fight against Coronavirus, working day and night to protect the NHS and save lives. It is a positive that the great work they have done has received greater recognition and more applications, but with over 40,000 nurse vacancies we are still nowhere near the scale required to end the staffing crisis.
Too often we hear of nurses leaving in their droves because they are overworked, underpaid and underappreciated. If this government is serious about attracting people to work as nurses then they need to show that it values those who already do, give them the equipment they need and give them the pay talks they deserve.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 10 August 2020.
The Government must be as transparent as possible with all aspects of coronavirus, including daily death figures. While there may be issues with how the figures are collated, Ministers must find solutions rather than end the publication of these statistics.
Throughout the pandemic there has been a failure to publish accurate statistics on a whole range of matters – from the number of people tested each day to the constant revision of the number of covid-related deaths.
It is vital that Ministers commit to continuing to publish daily death figures. Failing to do so risks sending the message out that the virus has been beaten when we know full well it is still circulating.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 6 August 2020.
It’s deeply concerning that the numbers are heading in the wrong direction again this week, with so many of the close contacts of people who have tested positive, and over 40 per cent of people in the same households, not being reached.
We now need a plan of action from Ministers that sets out what they are doing to address these huge holes in the contact tracing system.
If this means supporting local areas to establish their own local contact tracing systems and ending the failed contract with Serco – as Labour has been calling for, for some time – then Ministers must get on and implement this without delay. We urgently need to get test and trace back on track.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 30 July 2020.
Ministers have outlined some worthy commitments on staff wellbeing, but without extra funding staff will continue to be overstretched and overworked.
The Government promised a full five-year People Plan with detailed, costed action. This falls a long way short of that.
The Covid-19 pandemic has shown just how valuable and loved NHS staff are – it’s time the Government put together a proper solution for recruitment and retention, including the pay talks that NHS workers deserve. The rhetoric on support for NHS staff needs to be matched with action.
The comments made by Justin Madders, the Shadow Health Minister, on 23 July 2020.
The Prime Minister promised we would have a 24-hour turnaround for test results by the end of last month but we are a long way off, with the numbers heading in the wrong direction again this week. How can ministers think it’s acceptable that testing is getting slower rather than faster as promised?
It is also a worry that we are still seeing so many of the close contacts of people who have tested positive not being reached.
Ministers need to spell out urgently what they are doing to address these huge holes in the contact tracing system.