Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 21st February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I would like to put on the record my thanks to my hon. Friend for the work he did as a Minister in my Department that led to the setting up of the expert working group, which I think has taken this issue forward and which he championed. His experience of the life sciences industry was incredibly helpful. I take on board both his points. It is absolutely right that this needs to focus on patient safety and how we put in place processes that help people suffering now and avoid it happening in the future. His point about training is a very good one.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement, although would have been nice for the victims to have heard a little more about the legal aid and compensation issue. He was absolutely right to describe our regulatory framework as world leading. It is, of course, European and precautionary based. Will he dissociate himself from the Foreign Secretary’s comments last week in which he included medicines regulation in the list of those areas for which he favoured full regulatory divergence?

[Mr Hunt]

As the right hon. Gentleman knows—we have had these discussions at the Health Select Committee—this country makes an enormous contribution to medicines regulation across Europe, because of our extensive scientific base, and we very much hope that those links continue.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

In the spirit of Christmas, I am happy to tell my right hon. and learned Friend that Lister Hospital received an extra £2.5 million to help it with winter pressures as a result of the Chancellor’s Budget announcement, and it was told that on Friday.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

With patients in Exeter now waiting more than a year, in pain, for vital surgery—well beyond the 18-week maximum guaranteed in the NHS constitution—can the Secretary of State explain the contradictory statements of the Chancellor, who said at the time of the Budget that he expected significant “inroads” to be made into growing waiting time lists, and the NHS England board, which met the following week and said that NHS waiting time standards

“will not be fully funded and met next year”?

[Mr Hunt]

I have been waiting for the right hon. Gentleman to issue the press release welcoming the £1.4 million of extra funding that the Royal Devon and Exeter got in the Chancellor’s Budget, but for some extraordinary reason it has not been forthcoming. Let me tell him that, as many people have commented, the NHS got a lot more money than it was expecting in the winter announcement—

[Mr Bradshaw]

Answer the question.

[Mr Hunt]

This is money that will, to answer the right hon. Gentleman’s question, make a big difference in helping the NHS get back to meeting its constitutional waiting time targets.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 14th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right to raise the question. I visited a GP surgery in Thornbury, in his neighbouring county, on Friday and discussed some of these issues. The NHS has an obligation to make sure that people can access its services, and in certain circumstances people are entitled to funding to help them do that. I thank him for raising the issue, however, and know that he will continue to fight hard on it.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

All four witnesses who gave evidence to the Health Committee inquiry into the current workforce crisis last week described the current situation as “unprecedented”. Janet Davies, the head of the Royal College of Nursing, said that if Brexit happened, it would be devastating. Does the Secretary of State accept that if there is no deal next month on the rights of EU nationals, the current stream of EU workers leaving our NHS and social care system will become a flood?

[Mr Hunt]

With respect, I do not think it helps to reassure the brilliant NHS professionals from the EU who are working in the system when the right hon. Gentleman asks questions like that. The reality is that those people are staying in the NHS, and I take every opportunity to ensure that they feel welcome. I try to stress how important they are, and how the NHS would fall over without them. The Government continue to make every possible effort to secure a deal for their future, which we are very confident that we will achieve.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 10th October 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise this issue. The Alex is going through a difficult period and I know that as the local MP she is giving it a lot of support. The fact is that in 2014 we turned down 37,000 applicants to nurse degree courses. That is why we think that we need to do much, much better in training a number of people who would make brilliant nurses. That was why we announced the big increase last week, which will help the Alex and many other hospitals.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

University admissions departments have reported an 8% fall in the number of people accepted on to nursing courses this autumn, so the situation is getting worse, not better as the Secretary of State claims. What contingency does he have in place, in the event that we crash out of the European Union, to address a further haemorrhaging of European Union staff from the NHS, and when will he review his disastrous decision to abolish nurse bursaries, which has had such a negative impact?

[Mr Hunt]

Let us be clear: we took the difficult decision on nurse bursaries precisely so that we could have the biggest expansion in nurse training places we have ever had. When we had the higher education reforms in 2011, which the right hon. Gentleman’s party opposed, we also saw a drop in initial applications, but then we saw them soaring to record levels. That is what we want to happen with nurses, because we need more nurses for the Royal Devon and Exeter, and all the hospitals that serve our constituents.

NHS Shared Business Services

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 27th June 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to confirm that. I am also happy to say that the problems in the old Mid Staffs, which I am afraid we had in many parts of the NHS, are being addressed much more quickly because of an independent oversight regime—the new Care Quality Commission inspection regime—and the appointment of a chief inspector of hospitals, who is independent in law and gives his judgment independently in law. That is something the Labour party regrettably tried to vote down.

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

May I commend to the House the record of the debate I secured in November 2011, in which I warned the Government in terms about the very poor record of SBS and urged them not to part-privatise what had been an excellent NHS service? Ministers said at the time that the new contract would save £250 million. Will the Secretary of State now tell the House how much this scandal has cost, rather than saved, the taxpayer? Will he apologise both to the staff and the patients affected?

[Mr Hunt]

The costs are in excess of £6 million, and we are seeking to recover as much of that as we can from the company involved. I know that the regime in the Labour party has changed, but to try to turn this into an issue of privatisation when under the right hon. Gentleman’s own party’s Government—and indeed, during his own time as Health Secretary—we had problems at Mid Staffs that were squarely in the public sector is wholly inappropriate. This is about proper assurance of what is going on in the NHS, and both sides of the House need to learn the lessons.