Supporting our NHS is a top priority for Theresa Villiers. Ever since becoming MP for Chipping Barnet, she has been working to secure the best NHS services for the area. Her campaigns include:
- Backing the Conservative commitment to increase funding for the NHS by £33 billion in cash terms so we give the health service the long term budget they need to plan for the future and improve patient care;
- Campaigning for earlier diagnosis of cancer so more people survive this disease;
- Campaigning to expand GP services in Barnet so residents can get appointments when they need them;
- Helping the NHS and local GPs to reach agreement in order to re-open Brunswick Park Health Centre after it was damaged by fire;
- Keeping the pressure up on the NHS to get East Barnet Health Centre and baby clinic re-opened;
- Successfully campaigning to prevent services in Barnet Hospital from being scaled back, and securing improvement and expansion of maternity, children’s, and A&E services there;
- Helping to secure the multi-million pound rebuild of Chase Farm which has delivered a brand new high-tech hospital building;
- Welcoming the linkup between Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals and the Royal Free which provides world class specialist care.
Read more about current and past campaigns:
Campaigning for NHS services for Barnet and supporting our local hospital
Theresa successfully campaigned to prevent services in Barnet Hospital from being scaled back in any of the health reconfigurations proposed by the previous Labour Government. She helped secure the expansion of A&E and maternity services at the hospital. The 2010-2015 Conservative-led coalition saw maternity, children's and A&E services expand at Barnet Hospital with major new facilities opened. Theresa lobbied throughout to support Barnet Hospital, questioning the chair of Barnet and Chase Farm Hospitals Trust to make sure that Barnet A&E would be prepared for extra patients after changes to nearby urgent care and A&E services.
As MP, she worked with local health chiefs to emphasise the importance of a joined-up approach between the hospital, GPs, the local authority, and people running care homes.
Theresa is very much aware of people's concerns about the time it can take to get to see their local GP. She has been campaigning for an expansion of GP appointments in Barnet. She raised this in Parliament in Prime Minister's Questions and with successive Secretaries of State for Health. She has welcomed progress on this campaign with the recent statement by the Health Secretary that the Conservatives will deliver 50 million more GP appointments.
February 2021: Villiers visits vaccination centre
September 2020: New ward for Barnet Hospital
February 2020: Villiers welcomes green light for GP expansion
February 2020: Villiers meets apprentice nurses at Barnet Hospital
November 2019: Backing the NHS in Barnet with more GP appointments
November 2019: New cancer screening equipment for the Royal Free
October 2019: Villiers backs GP expansion plans
April 2019: Theresa gets stuck in to help local GPs
January 2019: Theresa Villiers welcomes NHS Ten Year Plan
August 2018: Theresa Villiers visits new cancer screening facilities at Finchley Memorial Hospital
April 2018: Good news on hospital parking problems
March 2018: Villiers welcomes success for petition to save breastfeeding service in Barnet
November 2017: We need action to prevent post-antibiotic disaster
April 2015: Championing the NHS in Barnet
January 2015: Villiers praises hard work of local NHS staff
March 2014: Villiers joins councillor scrutinising Barnet Hospital’s A&E services
August 2013: Villiers welcomes additional funding for A&E departments
July 2013: Villiers makes Saturday evening visit to meet doctors at Barnet Hospital A&E
December 2011: Villiers comes out against splitting Barnet Hospital from Chase Farm
May 2010: Villiers welcomes decision to scrap plans to downgrade A&E services in Barnet
Brunswick Park Health Centre
Just before Christmas 2013, Theresa was successful in her three-year campaign to get Brunswick Park Health Centre rebuilt and reopened after it was damaged in a fire. The centre stood empty for many months with local GPs unable to agree rental terms with the NHS. Theresa got the two sides round the table for a series of meetings and eventually an agreement was reached.
December 2013: Success in three-year campaign for upgraded Brunswick Park health centre
October 2013: Villiers welcomes proposal to move Hampden Square GP Practice into Brunswick Park medical centre
July 2013: Villiers calls for urgent meetings on Brunswick Park health centre
May 2013: Villiers welcomes start of work on rebuilding Brunswick Park Health Centre
April 2013: Villiers keeps up the pressure to get Brunswick Park Health Centre up and running
March 2012: Villiers welcomes rebuilding Brunswick Park Health Centre
East Barnet Health Centre and Baby Clinic
East Barnet Health Centre (EBHC) was temporarily closed in 2014 for the removal of asbestos and its services relocated to Vale Drive in High Barnet. This was only supposed to be for a few weeks, but the closure stretched into months. Meanwhile, patients and GPs were becoming increasingly fed up with problems at Vale Drive. Theresa took action by bringing all the key people together for a meeting in her constituency office - NHS Property Services (NHSPS), the GPs, NHS Barnet and representatives of residents. NHSPS agreed that the centre would be fully refurbished and it was finally re-opened in October 2015.
Theresa continued to press for updates as services connected to the baby clinic remained at their temporary home in Vale Drive: an awkward journey for young parents or carers trying to take a child on public transport. She made further representations to the NHS and was informed in early December that the relevant authority had signed the agreement for re-occupation, followed by the clinic eventually re-opening in January 2017.
January 2017: East Barnet baby clinic to be back in action!
October 2015: East Barnet Health Centre reopened!
October 2015: Villiers welcomes break-through on East Barnet Health Centre
September 2015: East Barnet Health Centre: Villiers pushes for progress
April 2015: Villiers keeps up the pressure to reopen East Barnet Health Centre
March 2015: East Barnet health centre update
February 2015: East Barnet Health Centre to reopen following £1m refurbishment
January 2015: Villiers campaigns for reopening of East Barnet Health Centre
Chase Farm Hospital
In 2015, The Royal Free Foundation Trust (which includes Chase Farm Hospital), submitted an outline planning application to Enfield Council for a new hospital building of up to 32,000 sq metres, as well as new homes and a three-form entry primary school. Theresa urged Enfield Council to approve the outline planning application, encouraged her constituents to do the same, and lobbied the government to support and contribute towards the major programme of improvements. The final approval was given by the Treasury and the Department of Health in 2016 for a multi-million revamp that would improve services for Chase Farm patients, many of whom are Barnet residents.
The brand new high-tech hospital was formally opened earlier this year and has proved to be very popular with patients.
May 2019: Villiers welcomes formal opening of the new Chase Farm Hospital by HRH the Duke of York
November 2018: Chase Farm has changed!
March 2016: Chase Farm rebuild gets green light from Government
February 2015: Villiers backs plans for £100m rebuild of Chase Farm Hospital
December 2011: Villiers comes out against splitting Barnet Hospital from Chase Farm
In Parliament
Following a cross-party campaign supported by Theresa Villiers MP, the drug Kadcyla will be made available by NHS England to people suffering from secondary breast cancer. Theresa had backed Breast Cancer Now’s campaign to make the life-prolonging drug, Kadcyla, available for routine use through the NHS, speaking up in Parliament and taking the case to the Secretary of State for Health.
She also backed the Shoulder To Shoulder campaign by Cancer Research UK to improve early diagnosis of cancer and get more specialists cancer staff appointed to the NHS.
November 2021: Barnet NHS team nominated for award
June 2018: Villiers backs campaign for better cancer care
June 2017: Campaign backed by Villiers secures funding for cancer drug
May 2017: Backing the NHS