Rebuild Our Health Service has welcomed Labour’s rescue plan for the NHS, which includes an extra £15 billion for new buildings and equipment. Labour has also promised to raise NHS capital spending to the average of the OECD, something which Rebuild Our Health Service and NHS Providers have been campaigning for. Currently NHS spending on buildings and equipment is around half the OECD average.

In addition, Labour has promised to make the following capital investments:

• Provide a new £2 billion strategic mental health infrastructure fund to abolish dormitory wards and make every inpatient setting safe for patients, invest in more beds to end out of area placements and roll out a fleet of crisis ambulances.
• Invest an extra £2.5 billion to overhaul the primary care estate so that GPs can deliver better local care in their communities.
• Provide an extra £1.5 billion to increase the numbers of CT and MRI scanners to the OECD average to radically improve diagnostic capacity and improve cancer outcomes.

Omar Salem, founder of Rebuild Our Health Service, said:

“Over the past decade, as part of austerity, budgets for NHS equipment and buildings were raided by the government to be used for day-to-day running costs. As a result, the NHS is falling apart. Hospitals are crumbling, equipment is broken and repairs are not being done.  This announcement by Labour could provide a massive boost to end the NHS buildings and equipment crisis”.

Despite Boris Johnson’s assertions to the contrary, my confrontation at Whipps Cross Hospital with him took place in front of the national media. Here are some especially interesting articles following that event, including some from patients and staff of Whipps Cross supporting me. You can also read my Guardian article launching Rebuild Our Health Service here.

“The harsh reality of underfunding at my hospital? Swept away for Johnson visit” – Matthew Weaver, The Guardian

“The Tory neglect of Whipps Cross hospital left me suffering without morphine and trapped in bed” – James Moore, Independent

“Staff at Whipps Cross hospital: ‘Our goodwill is running dry‘” – Denis Campbell, The Guardian

“Boris Johnson and Omar Salem put anti-democratic trolls to shame” – Editorial, The Scotsman

“One casualty of Boris’s hospital row was debate” – Sophy Ridge, Metro

“It shouldn’t be left to people like Omar Salem to question Johnson – it should be the job of MPs like me“ – Alison McGovern MP, Independent

“What does, and doesn’t, matter about the father who confronted Boris Johnson in a hospital” – Stephen Bush, The New Statesman

“FactCheck Q&A: what did Boris Johnson mean when he said there were ‘no press’ at his hospital visit?” – Patrick Worrall, Channel 4 News

“The Tories are learning that Boris Johnson is electoral Marmite” – Gaby Hinsliff, The Guardian

“Why we need to hear the phrase “I don’t know” much more in a world of instant online opinions” – Amelia Tait, The New Statesman

“What Boris Johnson should have said to Omar Salem” – Caron Lindsay, Liberal Democrat Voice

“I am not a real person”: why the media’s search for authenticity is screwing everything up” – Jonn Elledge, The New Statesman

I have written an article in The Guardian launching Rebuild Our Health Service.

Following my daughter’s experience at Whipps Crosss Hospital and my encouter with Boris Johnson there, I realised that there is a huge buildings crisis in the NHS. Essential repairs and replacement of buildings and equipment have not been done for years due to austerity. I explain the issues and the campaign in more detail in the article.