Alison Bennett's Monday Mail: The Origins of a PMQ
The origins of a PMQ
Last Wednesday I was on the Order Paper for Prime Minister’s Questions (PMQs). Getting to ask a question at PMQs works like a raffle. You put your name in each week, and every now and again your name comes out in the ‘shuffle’, and then you have a few days to ponder what you might want to ask.
The Prime Minister does not know beforehand what your question is about. Sometimes, if your question is hyper local, you will get a more useful answer if you forewarn his officials about what you are going to say. This has been standard practice for a very long time. However, you are under no obligation to do so, and last week, I did not give advance notice.
The Friday before, I had spent the afternoon at the Royal Sussex County Hospital in Brighton. I was there to do two things. Firstly to take up an invitation from the Royal College of Pathologists to visit a Path Lab, and understand what they do. Secondly to meet the new Chief Executive of the University Hospitals Sussex NHS Foundation Trust, Dr Andy Heeps.
Having been shown what the lab does, I had a coffee with some clinicians and Dr Heeps. I told them I had a PMQ on Budget day, and asked what they would want to ask the Prime Minister. The strongest answer that came back was about the impact that delayed hospital discharges have upon the operation of the Trust.
A delayed hospital discharge is when someone is medically ready to go home, but because they haven’t got the support they need to be cared for, they have to stay in the hospital. This can be a package of domiciliary social care or a place in a care home paid for either by the patient themselves or by the local council. Years ago when I was just getting started in local politics, I imagined that these delays might be for a matter of days or a week or two. But back then, and still now, we are very often talking about weeks or months waiting for a social care ‘package.’
Why did the hospital doctors raise this with me? It means that every bed in the Trust that is occupied by someone who should be at home, cannot be given to a new patient who needs their help. This is bad for patients who decondition the longer they stay in hospital, it creates strain across their hospitals, and given that a hospital bed costs much more per night than a bed in a care home, it hits us as taxpayers too.
They told me that there are usually 350 people across the Trust’s hospitals who are stuck in a hospital bed, and that this is equivalent to all the beds in the Princess Royal Hospital in Haywards Heath.
A whole hospital of people ready to go home, but who cannot. That in a nutshell was my question for Sir Keir Starmer. You can watch the question and his answer here.
The Budget
The Budget was obviously the main event of Wednesday. I shared my initial thoughts on Facebook, and later on this week, my column in the Mid Sussex Times will go into some more detail, so do look out for that.
Reform Mayoral Candidate: It’s between Reform and the Lib Dems
I think we finally have a full line up of candidates from the main parties for the first ever elections for a Mayor of Sussex (now that Reform have named their man). In an interview with ITV Meridian the Reform candidate said that it’s going to be a contest between Reform and the Liberal Democrats.
If you want to see the Liberal Democrats beat Reform, then do find out how you can help by visiting our brilliant candidate Ben Dempsey’s Facebook page.
And now for something genuinely terrifying
I have started reading the alarmingly titled If Anyone Builds It, Everyone Dies which makes the case against ‘superintelligent’ AI. I am only on chapter 1 at the moment. It’s a compelling read so far. Worth a look I think.
Getting in touch
My parliamentary email address is: alison.bennett.mp@parliament.uk. If you need my help, please get in touch.
Best wishes,
Alison
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