Click here to complete my NHS@60 survey

The NHS is Labour’s greatest achievement. A service available to all and based on need - not ability to pay. This year is its 60^th anniversary. From being on its knees in the 90s the NHS has undergone a transformation with tens of thousands more staff, 80,000 new nurses and scores of new hospitals and specialist units.   

The NHS is now performing more than 1 million extra operations a year instead of having to wait up to 2 years for an operation under the Tories. Locally I’ve been proud to back the new cardiac unit at Blackpool Victoria and the new health centres, plus community nurses and new mental health facilities to replace Parkwood.

But we need to ensure the NHS meets changing expectations of all its users. That’s why in this 60^th anniversary year Government is carrying out a major consultation with NHS staff and the public headed by Lord Darzi the renowned heart surgeon, to find out how we can face up to these challenges.

As part of this I am reporting back to Health Secretary Alan Johnson on what people in Blackpool want from our NHS in the 21^st Century. How can we make sure that we have a properly funded health service which is centred around the patient and accountable to the local community? How do we make further progress on cancer, stroke treatment and give older people increased quality of life and medical support at home and in hospital? Are all NHS staff valued properly –  cleaners as well as consultants? And what about greater support for mental health and related services?

I’d like to hear what you think. I will feed your thoughts back to Alan Johnson and make sure you have a say on Blackpool’s health services.  

Gordon Marsden

Labour MP for Blackpool South

Click here to complete my survey. You can email me your thouhgts about the NHS on gordonmarsdenmp@parliament.uk or you can post the completed survey back to me at House of Commons, London, SW1A 0AA.

Visit www.labour.org.uk/proud for more details of the NHS@60