Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Ian Lavery

Tuesday 9th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

What my Back Benches are queueing up to say is, “Thank you for sorting out the problems that Labour swept under the carpet for years and years.” What did Professor Brian Jarman of Imperial College say about the Department of Health under the last Labour Government? He said that it was a “denial machine”, with all the problems in hospitals being swept under the carpet and not dealt with. What is happening under this Government? Every day, 100 more people are being treated for cancer, 2,000 more people are being seen within four hours at A&E departments and 4,400 more operations are being carried out. There are record numbers of doctors and nurses, and the NHS is safer than ever in its history. We are proud to be the party of the NHS.

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

3. What estimate he has made of the number of patients who went to A&E after having been unable to make an appointment with their GP in the most recent period for which figures are available.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Ian Lavery

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Ian Lavery (Wansbeck) (Lab)]

T4. The Secretary of State has admitted this morning that under his watch the NHS and the taxpayer have been ripped off to the tune of somewhere in the region of £1.8 billion for temporary workers and £3.3 billion for agency workers. How many fully qualified NHS nurses could have been employed with that type of finance?

[Mr Hunt]

I will tell the hon. Gentleman what we have done: on my watch, there are 8,000 more nurses in our hospitals to deal with the tragedy of the legacy of poor care left behind by his party. That is what we have done. As part of that, trusts also recruited temporary staff. They have become over-dependent on them, which is why we have taken the measures we announced this morning.