Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Dr Poulter]

I can reassure my hon. Friend that the absolute heart of what we are doing on joining up data is ensuring that we join up data better and promote integration. Some of that will come from the £3.8 billion we are providing for more joined-up and integrated care between health and social care as part of our integrated care fund, or better care fund as it is now termed.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

But why is it harder to get a GP appointment now than it was five years ago?

[Dr Poulter]

I think the hon. Lady will find that it was getting harder under the previous Government. It was not helped by the fact that, as we know, although it was not the fault of GPs, the contract that GPs were presented with by the previous Government made it difficult for many patients in many parts of the country to access primary and community care out of hours.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, because in an era of transparency we depend on honesty from the people supplying the information being used. It is not always possible independently to audit every single piece of information. What we have said today is that deliberately supplying false or misleading information will be a criminal offence, which is a much tougher sanction than anything else we are saying today. We think that the most important thing is to establish a culture in which people tell the truth and speak out if there is a problem, because then something can be done about it.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

There is a great deal to welcome in the Secretary of State’s statement, not least with regard to transparency and complaints. I welcome in particular the comments on staffing, although, obviously, we used to have more nurses than we have now. Will the Secretary of State look at the vetting and barring service, because my understanding is that use of the service and referrals to it have been declining over the past couple of years?

[Mr Hunt]

I have concerns about how much that service is used. My particular concern is not so much whether employers are checking before they employ someone, but whether they are informing the service that an employee should be referred to it for delivering inappropriate care. That is something that we will look at.

Urgent and Emergency Care Review

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 12th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Recruiting 300 more A and E consultants than when the hon. Lady’s Government were in power.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

What has the Secretary of State got to say about the fact that in my area, compared with four years ago, it is harder to get a GP appointment. We no longer have NHS Direct, and cuts in adult social care mean that patients are not making room for other patients to go to A and E. The person raising that with me is the chief superintendant of Darlington police, who is fed up with his officers being held up by taking patients to A and E, as those patients would otherwise wait more than an hour for an ambulance?

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady makes some important points, and I congratulate her on being the first Opposition Member to raise the fact that it has become harder and harder to get an appointment with a GP. [Interruption.] I know that it is hard to accept, but it is a fundamental problem, and a challenge facing our A and E departments that the Government are determined to sort out.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

May I reassure the right hon. Gentleman that the competition authorities make their decisions based on what is in the best interests of patients and do not hold competition as an overriding ideology? He is right that we need to work closely with those authorities to ensure that they have the expertise to take decisions in the right way and with trusts to ensure that they have the expertise to ensure that they do not stumble when they go through those processes.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

How can the public have confidence in their health service when police officers are taking patients who are sick and injured to A and E because ambulances are backed up outside A and E and take longer than an hour to arrive?

[Mr Hunt]

I will tell the hon. Lady why the public can have confidence in their health service: compared with three years ago, on broadly the same budget, the NHS is doing 800,000 more operations year in, year out; MRSA rates have halved; and the number of people who wait for a year or longer for operations has gone down from 18,000 to fewer than 400.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

I have listened very carefully to what the Secretary of State has said on A and E, but he has not addressed the fact that under the previous Government waiting times reduced and under his Government they are growing and are now at their longest for more than a decade, so what is he going to do?

[Mr Hunt]

As I said to the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) earlier, we actually hit our A and E waiting time target last year. If the hon. Lady is talking about waiting times in general, the number of people waiting for more than a year for an operation was 18,000 under the previous Government, and the figure has fallen to just 800 under this Government.

Heart Surgery (Leeds)

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Monday 15th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is the subject of legal proceedings at the moment, and I want to ensure that we have a process that is fair and that is recognised to be fair by all the people who are affected by this possible decision. I therefore want to ensure that the decision will be judicially robust, but I also want to get independent advice from the IRP before I make my final decision. If that means that it takes longer to get to a decision, then I am afraid that that might be the case, but the most important thing is to get to a decision that is fair and that is recognised to be so.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

It is right that such decisions should be made on the basis of data, but those data must be more reliable. Such decisions are made in this way up and down the country on maternity and accident and emergency units, for example. How will the Secretary of State ensure that such data are reliable and robust, that they can be challenged, and that such situations can be dealt with far more quickly than has been the case in Leeds?

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady makes an important point. At the heart of this is a change happening in the NHS, where heart surgery is leading the way and we are discovering that we can make dramatic improvements to mortality rates. It has happened in heart surgery, where we have moved from being one of the worst performers in Europe to one of the best, because of the collection of risk-adjusted data. That has now been extended to cancer outcomes and to a total of 10 specialities. We shall gradually collect those data over the next two years, which will allow peer review in a way that cannot normally happen. It is a big change and part of the issue was that the hospital in Leeds did not realise how seriously the data would be taken, which may have meant that it did not supply as complete data as it should have, and that led to the problem. There is a big change, but also a big opportunity for the NHS to improve its outcomes.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Anna Soubry]

I am glad to assist my hon. Friend and assure him that fairness is imperative when it comes to distributing money and deciding where it goes. One reason the Government are keen to make the formula fair is our determination to reduce health inequalities, especially given the last Administration’s legacy of increased inequalities.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

The former Secretary of State wanted to make age the only factor in the formula, which would have totally ignored poverty and the local cost of care—[Interruption.] He said it. It would have taken £295 per head away from the north-east. Will the Minister confirm that the local cost of care and poverty will be included in the formula allocation?

[Anna Soubry]

That was not my understanding of the former Secretary of State’s comments, but I can say that we are absolutely determined to ensure that fairness is achieved, and all the factors she mentions are important in ensuring that fairness.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Yes. As my hon. Friend will know, under the existing formula, age was the single biggest factor, but what is important is that the formula accurately reflects the factors that will give rise to need for health care, so that the allocation of resources can respond directly to that need. Ensuring separately that there is an allocation to local authorities for public health, which will be measured in relation to mortality below the age of 75 in particular, will enable those resources separately to be focused on, for example, areas of greatest deprivation which give rise to the poorest health outcomes.

[Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

I am interested to hear the Secretary of State say that he understands there is a link between deprivation and health inequality, in light of the new funding arrangements that seem to indicate that councils in the north-east will receive £17 per head less for public health, whereas councils in wealthier parts of the country will receive £8 per head more.

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady knows perfectly well that I have said many times that deprivation can give rise to inequalities in health outcomes. In particular, we are improving substantially the framework for reducing those health inequalities, because we are giving local authorities specific, dedicated resources. Let me make it clear to her that under the public health allocation formula that I outlined just a few weeks ago, no part of the country will see any reduction in its public health resources from the baseline established.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 12th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Anne Milton]

Indeed, that is why we have a cross-Government strategy. We will be working with the Home Office and many other agencies and Departments to ensure that we deliver the savings. It is not just about the financial cost; it is also about the human cost. Identification, brief interventions and alcohol liaison nurses are all part and parcel of making sure that we reduce the harms of alcohol.

[Mrs Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

Again, the north-east tops the league of alcohol-related admissions to hospital. Availability, advertising and price all seem to be encouraging more and more people to buy more and more alcohol in supermarkets. When will the Government do something about the pricing and advertising of alcohol? In case the Minister is worried about the politics of this, she should know that she has the support of drinkers in Darlington’s working men’s clubs.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness Chapman of Darlington Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. He will understand that each hospital trust or acute trust must be responsible for ensuring that there is not an excessive length of stay for patients and that it has the ability to isolate patients if necessary. Norovirus is one circumstance in which trusts often have to open additional capacity. In my experience of hospitals, that is precisely what is generally done. There is an ability to open new capacity if necessary when norovirus strikes.

[Mrs Jenny Chapman (Darlington) (Lab)]

Consulting on changes to health services is not an easy thing to get right. I think that the Secretary of State would agree with that. Will he undertake to look at the consultation taking place in County Durham and Darlington on acute stroke services, because I and the local council believe it to be misleading?

[Mr Lansley]

I will, of course, look at that consultation, with which I am not directly familiar. The four tests that I set out shortly after the election—understanding patients’ current and prospective choice; understanding what is demanded by clinical safety and evidence; understanding the view of the public, as represented through the local authority; and understanding the intentions of commissioners, particularly the clinical commissioning groups that are being established—give a much stronger basis for understanding future configuration decisions.