Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 27th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely agree with the hon. Lady that nowhere in the NHS should allow low staff numbers to lead to poor care. What was interesting about the CQC report, which was a wake-up call for the whole NHS, was that institutions under financial pressure, as the whole NHS is, are delivering excellent care in some places and delivering care that is unsatisfactory and not good enough in other places. On her specific question about nurses and nurse numbers, it is important to recognise that across the NHS as a whole the nurse-to-bed ratio has increased. Every NHS bed is getting an extra two hours of care per week compared with the situation two years ago.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State give an instruction, irrespective of the numbers, that we go back to traditional nursing methods, as now that we have an almost all-graduate nursing profession we seem to have lost touch with true, caring nursing?

[Mr Hunt]

I have some sympathy with what my hon. Friend is saying, although it is important to recognise, as we have this debate about nursing, that the vast majority of nurses in the NHS do an outstanding job and we are very lucky to have them giving their lives to the NHS. Next week, at the chief nursing officer’s conference, we are launching a new vision for nursing, which will put compassion and the patient at the heart of what nurses do. I hope that will address some of her concerns.

Community Hospitals

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 6th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this timely debate. She mentioned the growing elderly population, and nowhere is that more of an issue than in north Yorkshire. Does she agree that the Government—and this is a good opportunity for me to congratulate our new Minister, whom I hope will respond positively—should not be obsessed only with home care, which has its place, and that there will always be a place for community hospitals in our health care structure?

[Dr Wollaston]

I wish to make the case for reinvigorating community hospitals as hubs for delivering the right care at the right time and in the right place. Of course, the right place, where possible, will always involve helping people to be independent in their own homes, but community hospitals have a vital role, through both step-up and step-down care, in helping to maintain that independence.

We should look at what community hospitals are capable of, because they are not just about in-patient beds: they provide a full range of diagnostics, minor injuries units, therapies—physiotherapy and occupational —and mental health care. In my constituency, people with cancer can access chemotherapy at Kingsbridge hospital, saving them a long roundtrip to Derriford hospital. Kingsbridge hospital—South Hams, I should say—supports a triangle centre helping people and their families living with cancer, while organisations such as Rowcroft hospice are looking to expand their care-at-home system through hubs in community hospitals and, at times, by utilising their beds and support. We can get so much more from community hospitals if we reinvigorate them.

We should not think of community hospitals as backwaters; they can be centres of great innovation. The nationally recognised Torbay pilot, which provides care based in the community, started at Brixham community hospital in my constituency and is now being considered for nationwide roll-out. That is a very good model.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 17th July 2012 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

We know from the most recent survey published by Laing and Buisson that there has been a 1.4% increase in the fees paid this year, compared with no increase last year. We also know that there is a surplus of places, which accounts for about 10% of the total number of bed places available in care homes up and down the country. So there is actually space, and it is entirely appropriate for local authorities to negotiate appropriate prices to provide good-quality care from one locality to another.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

Following the census announcement yesterday that there are elderly hot spots, including North Yorkshire, will this is be a good opportunity for the Minister and the Government to review health and social care funding to reflect a growing elderly population in sparsely populated, isolated rural areas such as North Yorkshire?

[Paul Burstow]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to highlight those issues and the emerging findings from the survey. It is important to say that data will be a key consideration in how the next spending review is shaped, along with the priorities that the Government will give to different demographic pressures as a result.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 12th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Last but not least, I call Anne McIntosh.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

The Department of Health is to be asked to sign off the business case for the transfer of services from Lambert Memorial community hospital to the new extra care housing scheme—sometimes called an extra sheltered accommodation scheme—in updated community facilities. Will the Secretary of State give me a personal assurance that there will be no sign-off until the future of Thirsk’s community hospital is guaranteed for its current purposes?

[Mr Lansley]

I cannot give my hon. Friend that assurance, not least because such decisions are led locally by local organisations. However, if the tests for service change were not met and the local authority referred the matter to me, I would of course take advice through the independent reconfiguration panel, and consider it in the light of that advice.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 27th March 2012 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

My hon. Friend has raised an important point about the importance of joining up hospital care, community care and social care, which has often been overlooked. We have invested more than £300 million this year in developing more re-ablement services, and in January we invested an extra £150 million in support for them. We are also extending our plans for more tariff reform to ensure that local hospitals have the means to drive the development of such services in their communities.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

11. What recent representations he has received on the 111 pilot telephone service; and if he will make a statement.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Andrew Lansley)]

I have received representations from the British Medical Association and the NHS Alliance, both of which support the NHS 111 model, requesting an extension of the roll-out deadline of April 2013. I am actively considering that, and will be discussing it with the clinical commissioning groups who are leading the development of NHS 111 in their areas.

[Miss McIntosh]

Will the Secretary of State accept representations from me? I have used the 111 service on behalf of a family member, and I know that it is not working as well as it might, which is quite distressing. The call time and the script do not allow a person receiving a particular type of care to be fast-tracked to a clinician. I believe that there is a case for delaying its roll-out, and that the service would be infinitely better if the Secretary of State took my representations on board.

[Mr Lansley]

I will of course accept representations from my hon. Friend and, indeed, from anyone else. Pilot schemes are under way in County Durham and Darlington and in Nottingham, Lincolnshire and Luton. The system is also live in Derbyshire, the Isle of Wight, Cumbria, parts of Lancashire and parts of London. An evaluation will be published shortly by the university of Sheffield, but an interim evaluation suggested that 93% of patients were pleased with the service that they had received, and, most important, 84% felt that it had delivered them to the right place first time.

Southern Cross Healthcare

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Thursday 16th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

On the hon. Gentleman’s question about the staffing of the CQC, I can confirm that last October I authorised an additional 75 inspectors’ posts to be filled by that organisation to strengthen it in the very way that he asks for.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

Given that the change in business model seems to have led to the current difficulties, what procedures have the Government and the Department put in place to prevent similar business collapses? Is the Minister convinced that the CQC has sufficient investigative, as opposed to enforcement, powers should the problem sadly recur in future?

[Paul Burstow]

There are certainly issues arising from the current situation that we will want to consider as we go about reforming social care. However, I think it would be wrong, while we are in the midst of the restructuring that the company is undertaking, to bring forward a hard and fast set of solutions to ensure the long-term stability of the social care sector.

Future of the NHS

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Monday 9th May 2011 Commons Chamber

[John Healey]

Some of the reorganisations in the 13 years of our Government played an important part in the reform and the great gains that patients saw in the NHS. However, it is also the case—and we learn from this—that reorganisations often take longer, save less, cost more and have less impact on improving care for patients than envisaged at the outset. We learned that lesson towards the end of our 13 years, which is why we had a period of important stability in the NHS, but it is a lesson that the Conservatives have failed to learn—extraordinarily so, as we all thought that they had learned it, because NHS reorganisation is exactly what the Prime Minister promised not to do before the election.

The Prime Minister’s broken promise on NHS reorganisation is part of the reason for the growing doubt and distrust about whether he is making the right decisions for the right reasons on the NHS. He promised to give the NHS a real rise in funding, but the Budget this year confirmed a £1 billion shortfall in England. He promised to protect front-line services, but nursing posts are already going, and the Royal College of Nursing expects 40,000 NHS jobs to go in the next four years. The Prime Minister promised a moratorium on hospital A and E, and maternity service closures, but some are now going ahead, and more will follow—without public consultation—under the Health and Social Care Bill plans.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

I am following the shadow Minister extremely closely. The last Government opened a treatment centre in my old constituency, Vale of York. I am having great difficulty understanding what we are proposing to do, following what Labour did in York.

[John Healey]

Let me help the hon. Lady. For the first time, all parts of the NHS, including the commissioning job, will be opened up to private companies and subject to competition. As I have said, independent sector treatment centres played a part in our being able to clear long waiting lists and restore the quality of service to the NHS, as well as in supplementing the mainstream NHS, not substituting for it, which is what will happen under her party’s Bill.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 26th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

I certainly stand by the idea that the Government provided adequate resources in the financial settlement last year, alongside efficiency savings, to ensure that every local authority could choose to maintain the current levels of eligibility and services in its area if it so wished.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

Will the Minister examine situations in which domiciliary care contracts are awarded under the EU public procurement directives, to ensure that especially when they are awarded on price, they are not dumbed down and the level of service reduced?

[Paul Burstow]

My hon. Friend makes an important point about ensuring that competition is always based on quality, not just price. If she would like to write to me with more details about the matter, I would certainly be happy to follow it up with her.

Swine Flu

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Monday 10th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

All I can tell the hon. Gentleman is the simple truth. In the early part of last week, we asked manufacturers whether they had additional supplies. I believe that some additional seasonal flu vaccine that is licensed for use in this country probably will be made available. In any case, we have the H1N1 vaccine to support the immunisation, where required. Early last week, we did ask Scotland. The amounts that would have been available in the short run were not significant at all, so it was better for them to be retained in Scotland because there might be a continuing need for the vaccine there, rather than here.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State explain when in the course of the year the vaccine would normally be ordered?

[Mr Lansley]

It would normally be ordered between March and May.

Oral Answers to Questions

Baroness McIntosh of Pickering Excerpts

Tuesday 7th December 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Burns]

I am happy to join the right hon. Gentleman in congratulating the university hospital of south Manchester on its fantastic achievement and the award that it has won. As he knows, his local hospital did that by reducing its energy consumption and carbon emissions by 26% over the past three years in ways such as the greater use of biomass fuels. It is a fantastic achievement and the staff should be justifiably proud of it. They are a beacon for other hospitals to follow to reach the same level of sustainability, and I am delighted that a number of hospitals throughout the country are striving to reach the position of the one in his area. I am confident that through greater sharing of information and work, more and more hospitals will make their contribution to reducing carbon levels.

[Miss Anne McIntosh (Thirsk and Malton) (Con)]

The Minister will be aware of the extreme weather conditions and extremely low temperatures of minus 17° C in and around Thirsk and in other parts of North Yorkshire where we have community hospitals and trust hospitals. Has he reviewed the impact on their funds of heating costs when low temperatures come so early in the winter and will carry on for such a long period?

[Mr Burns]

I can reassure my hon. Friend. She is absolutely right that the winter period and harsh weather impose extra costs, but I am pleased to tell her that partly through winter planning and partly through the experience of past years, hospitals are aware of that. They take into their planning and financial budgeting the possibility of weeks and perhaps longer—depending on the weather—when their costs will increase, and adjust to meet those demands. I am confident that bad weather will not impact on front-line services because of the work that hospitals do to account for it over the 52 weeks of the year.