Steve Barclay was today confronted by an angry mother who said she is ‘scared’ No10’s handling of the crisis in the NHS could cause her ill daughter to die young.
The Health Secretary met with Sarah Pinnington-Auld at King’s College Hospital in London today, a day before thousands of nurses go on strike again across the country.
Mrs Pinnington-Auld, 43, seized the opportunity to tell him she worries about treatment for her three-year-old daughter Lucy, who suffers with cystic fibrosis.
Speaking with Mr Barclay at Lucy’s bedside, she told him ‘the damage you are doing to families like myself is terrible’ and said she fears what the Government might ‘do to the NHS’.
Steve Barclay met with Sarah Pinnington-Auld (pictured) at King’s College Hospital in London today, a day before nurses go on strike again across the country
Ms Pinnington-Auld seized the opportunity to tell him she worries about treatment for her three-year-old daughter Lucy, who suffers with cystic fibrosis
Sarah Pinnington-Auld, whose three-year-old daughter Lucy is receiving treatment for Cystic Fibrosis, had stern words with Mr Barclay as he visited King’s College Hospital in South London earlier today. Pictured with Lucy, right
It was the second time Mr Barclay has been publicly accosted while on a hospital visit, after he was accused of doing ‘bugger all’ by a furious woman in August.
Mrs Pinnington-Auld said of her daughter: ‘Her care here has been absolutely amazing. The doctors, the nurses, everyone on the ward, they’re brilliant.
‘Considering what they’re under, considering the shortages, considering the lack of resources.
‘I think for me, that’s what’s really upsetting, actually, because we have a daughter with a life limiting, a life shortening condition. We have some brilliant experts, and they’re being worked to the bone and actually, the level of care they provide is amazing.
‘But they’re not being able to provide it in the way they want to provide it, because the resources are not there.’
The mother-of-two, who has posted messages of support for Labour in the past, added: ‘On Monday, we were due to be in and the number of people coming through the door is too many and it’s not fair to blame on the pandemic anymore, is it?
‘Because actually, we had problems in the NHS before we went into the pandemic. We were short of doctors, we were short of beds going into the pandemic.
‘The damage that you’re doing to families like myself is terrible because it was agony for us as a family waiting for that call and preparing our children for their sister and her hospital visits for it to be cancelled.
‘I am so scared for my daughter’s future, thinking what you guys might do to the NHS and what might mean in exact terms for the length of her life.
‘If you don’t prioritise the NHS, I don’t know what chance she has at a longer life.’
Mr Barclay responded by saying ‘part of the reason’ the Government invested an extra £6.6billion in funding for the NHS and social care was to help cases like hers.
Mrs Pinnington-Auld, a former primary school teacher, later said she initially didn’t want to speak to the Health Secretary.
She said the the thought of talking to someone who is ‘working against the NHS’ made her feel ‘sick’.
She said: ‘It felt like it went against my nature. But then I actually thought “no I want to be a voice for my daughter and for the nurses, for the doctors, for the service”.’
Ms Pinnington-Auld told Mr Barclay ‘the damage you are doing to families like myself is terrible’
Speaking to MailOnline this afternoon, Mrs Pinnington-Auld said her daughter was born at King’s College Hospital in December 2019 and they go back for annual check-ups.
They now live near Canterbury in Kent but made the 60-mile journey to London last Sunday for an assessment when doctors expressed concern at a chest infection Lucy was struggling with.
Lucy was booked in for a bronchoscopy but due to the high-volume of patients, she was made to wait for the complicated procedure, which has now been completed.
She and her mother hope to be going home later this week in time for Christmas.
Mother-of-two Mrs Pinnington-Auld said: ‘We’ve been at King’s College now for a week. We come every year to have a check-up but this time there was some concern at the chest infection Lucy had.
‘They wanted to take a close look at her lungs and so a bronchoscopy was booked but there was a delay in Lucy having the procedure done. She’s had it done now.
‘This morning, I was at Lucy’s bedside as she recovered and the staff told me that the Health Secretary was visiting the hospital and would I mind if he had a few words with me.
‘I said that was fine. He came over and we had a little small talk and he asked me what was wrong with Lucy and how things had gone.
‘I knew I didn’t have that long with him so I wanted to make him aware of just how hard the team at King’s work and just how brilliant they are, whilst at the same time letting him know that the NHS is such an incredible institution, but it’s been neglected since the Conservative party have been in Government.
‘As a country we used to have such pride in the NHS, it formed part of the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony.
‘But to me, I’m not sure the Government feels that pride. I think the NHS has become burdensome financially for them. It isn’t receiving the right funding.
‘We have a lower proportion of hospital beds and medics per 1,000 of the population compared to similar health services in other countries.
This map shows the hospitals where the Royal College of Nursing is holding strikes over pay on Thursday 15 and Tuesday 20 December
The Royal College of Nursing went on strike last Thursday and is planning a further strike tomorrow
This graph shows the Royal College of Nursing’s demands for a 5 per cent above inflation pay rise for the bands covered by its membership which includes healthcare assistants and nurses. Estimates based on NHS Employers data
‘And since the pandemic, there’s been so many individuals who have made a profited and become very, very wealthy while at the same time social care is really struggling.
‘That’s what I wanted Mr Barclay to know that the NHS is not being treated the way it should and it’s hampering all the incredible work being done by the amazing staff.’
Mrs Pinnington-Auld, who also has a four-year-old son called Frankie, has posted several touching pictures of her and Lucy on her Facebook. She is a keen runner and raises money for cystic fibrosis charities.
Mr Barclay was visiting the hospital amid ever-growing pressure to meet nurses and settle a pay dispute, as strikes continue to threaten the health service.
Thousands of medics will walk out of hospitals for the second time tomorrow in the biggest ever industrial action to rock the NHS, sparked by the ongoing dispute over pay.
Paramedics, ambulance drivers and 999 call handlers will man their own picket lines on Wednesday, creating the biggest emergency service strike since the 1980s.
Union bosses today said No10 has been ‘completely intransigent’ on discussing pay and a ‘firm commitment’ on wages is needed to prevent the walkouts.
Elderly patients who are medically fit for discharge could be trapped in hospitals over Christmas because of the strikes, senior NHS staff fear.
But the worst scenes could come as a result of ambulance strikes, which could see elderly people who fall at home and women in late stages of pregnancy denied emergency transport to hospitals.
Downing Street rejected offering NHS workers a one-off lump sum payment to avert the strikes, one of the measures supposedly put forward by Mr Barclay last week.
Nurses suggested they would be open to discussing the offer but further talks would be needed by this Thursday or more action will be scheduled in January.
Walkouts in the New Year could prove even more disruptive to patients and last for longer.
In related news…
No10 urges unions plotting NHS strike chaos to ‘step back and reconsider’ as ‘really disappointed’ Rishi Sunak refuses to budge on pay
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