AS you may have read, being knocked off my bike recently led to a broken ankle and leg.

A first attempt to set those fractures failed, so last Friday I had a second operation on both.

I now have more screws in my leg than in my garden shed, but I am looking forward to being able to return to the House of Commons next week and hopping through the voting lobbies once more.

All of this has meant that I have spent a lot of time lately being looked after by the NHS. The care I have received has been exemplary. But the one observation I have taken from this is how difficult it is to tie all aspects together: there seems to be no consistent link between, for example, out of hours services, admission, ward transfers, scheduling of operations, prescribing, aftercare reviews, physio and beyond.

I am well aware that this is based on only one Trust and that all are different, but it was still an eye-opener. The individual elements of care, and the people who give it, are remarkable, but there appears to be no golden thread to pull all of the aspects together.

I will be interested to see whether my experience in London (where my accident happened) is reflected here in Cumbria and will be discussing my experience with both Health Ministers and also our local hospital trust to see how they would do things differently.

This is particularly pertinent given the publication on Tuesday of the report by the consulting firm Niche on an independent investigation into the Urology Department at the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust (UHMBT). It makes sobering reading.

If you have followed some of the press reporting over the last few years on this, or read whistle-blower Peter Duffy’s book Whistle in the Wind, much in that report will not surprise you. However, like any good publication it cuts through the conflicting accounts and highlights the specific issues that led to it being commissioned in the first place.

These include the problems of a dysfunctional, conflicted and broken team; efforts to bring about change being unsustained; poor leadership at the top of the Trust; and an understandable wish (following the scandal about the Trust’s maternity services) to promote good news and stifle bad. This proved a toxic mix, leading to poor outcomes, patient harm, and loss of life.

This is a difficult time for UHMBT. An Improvement Director has been brought in to make the changes necessary to turn things round.

That will take time, but it is now for the Trust’s leadership to act quickly and effectively to demonstrate that they can put together and deliver on a clear plan for sustained and embedded change, and by doing so, regain the confidence of the community.

If there is any indication at all that this isn’t happening, I shall be discussing this with my fellow MPs who represent the areas covered by the Trust – Cat Smith, Trudy Harrison, David Morris and Tim Farron – to make sure that all our constituents get the care they have every right to expect from their local hospital Trust.