Graham is asking residents across Beverley and Holderness to tell him their views on NHS care after local people raised concerns that falling national waiting list figures do not reflect what is happening on the ground.
He is also writing to Lyn Simpson, Chief Executive of Humber Health Partnership, to raise residents’ concerns directly and ask what support local NHS services need from Government.
The Government says NHS waiting lists are falling.
That would be welcome news if it meant more people getting the treatment they need.
But Graham says the national picture must be tested against real experiences in Beverley and Holderness, where residents are still reporting long waits for surgery, delays in treatment, difficulty seeing a GP, problems accessing NHS dentistry, and stress getting to hospital appointments.
Graham has now launched an NHS services survey covering ambulance response times, A&E waits, GP and dental access, cancer treatment, maternity services and travel for treatment.
The issue is especially important locally because Hull University Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust, which runs Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital, has been placed in segment four under the Government’s new NHS performance rankings. That identifies it as one of the lowest-performing trusts in the country.
Graham said the figures should not be used simply to blame local NHS staff, who are working under huge pressure. Instead, they should trigger proper Government support to improve services for patients in Beverley and Holderness.
In his letter to Lyn Simpson, Graham asks what action is being taken to reduce waits for surgery, diagnostics and cancer treatment.
He also asks how the Trust ensures patients are not removed from waiting lists unless it is clinically appropriate and clearly understood by the patient.
Graham is also asking what support the Trust needs from Government following its placement in segment four, and what more can be done for patients travelling from rural areas, particularly older and vulnerable people who struggle with hospital parking or lack of public transport.
The survey follows comments from local residents who responded to Graham’s call for evidence on Facebook.
Some residents reported positive experiences. One said they went from a GP visit to a CT scan within three days and praised cancer services at Castle Hill. Another said their GP surgery and hospital care were working well for them and their elderly mother.
But others described serious problems.
One resident said they had waited more than six months just for MRI results. Another said they had to pay £500 privately to get their three-year-old’s hearing checked after being told there would be a long wait just to get on the appointment list.
Several residents raised NHS dentistry, including one from Beverley who said they could not get an NHS dentist locally.
Hospital parking and travel were also raised repeatedly, particularly by people living in rural villages with little or no public transport. Residents said visits to Hull Royal Infirmary and Castle Hill Hospital could become deeply stressful because they had to drive, struggled to park, or could not rely on buses.
One resident also shared a serious case involving an older family member who had been told they had a new cancer which needed urgent removal. They said that, eight weeks later, no date had been given, the cancer had doubled in size, and the patient was in extreme pain.
Graham said the case was deeply worrying and showed why waiting list figures alone cannot tell the full story.
National reporting has raised concerns that some reductions in waiting lists may be driven by patients being removed from lists without treatment. The Telegraph reported that more than 351,000 cases were removed from the NHS waiting list in March without the patient receiving treatment.
Graham said local evidence is now needed to understand whether people in Beverley and Holderness are receiving the care they need, or whether they are still being left waiting.
Residents can complete Graham’s NHS services survey at grahamstuart.com/health.
Graham said: “NHS waiting lists falling should mean more people getting the treatment they need.
“But that is not what I am hearing from too many people in Beverley and Holderness.
“Some residents have had excellent care, and I want to hear about that too. But others are waiting months for results, paying privately because they cannot get NHS treatment, struggling to find a dentist, or finding hospital visits made harder by poor transport and parking.
“Hull’s hospitals have now been placed in the lowest performance segment. That cannot just mean more pressure on local staff. It must mean proper support from Government to improve care for patients.
“That is why I am writing to Lyn Simpson and asking residents to tell me their views, good or bad, so I can take the evidence directly to the NHS and the Government.
“Statistics matter. But they are not enough. If people are still waiting in pain, still unable to get treatment, or being taken off lists without care, then Ministers need to know.
“I will use the evidence residents give me to press the NHS and the Government for practical improvements locally.”
