UK Ebola Preparedness

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Monday 5th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We have learned the lessons to speed up the process so that people, I trust, will not have to wait as long. One of the lessons we learned in the Christmas period is that we do not want people to have to wait as long. I want to stress to my hon. Friend—perhaps he could stress this to his constituents—that the clinical risk of contracting Ebola from sitting next to someone who is not exhibiting feverish symptoms is very low. That is why the clinical advice was, and remains, that it is perfectly safe for someone to travel on a train if they are not displaying the symptoms. We want to go further, however. We recognise that we do not know everything about this disease and therefore want to be precautionary. That is why we have said that if people in the high-risk categories—those who have had contact with Ebola patients—say they are unwell, we will have a different protocol going forward even if their temperature is within the normal range. I hope that will reassure his constituents.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

The Government were absolutely right to start screening on 14 October. May I urge the Secretary of State to resist calls from those who say that screening is not effective and should stop? This was not a direct flight: it went through Casablanca. Although we have put a lot of resources into Sierra Leone and we have resources at Heathrow, there appears to be no international effort in the major hubs in Africa. What steps are going to be taken to help Governments such as that in Morocco, specifically in Casablanca, which receives so many flights from other countries in Africa that end up at Heathrow airport?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for raising that point; he has done so on a number of occasions. It is very important that there is not a weak link in the chain. We have been relatively satisfied with the screening procedures at Casablanca, which we have obviously inquired into in great detail because of the fact that Pauline came through Casablanca, but I will ask Public Health England to reassure me that it is satisfied with those screening procedures, and, if not, if there is any assistance we can provide to the Moroccan authorities.

NHS (Five Year Forward View)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Monday 1st December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

First, I agree with the point that my right hon. Friend is making: home care is going to become an increasingly important part of what the NHS and social care systems deliver. I want them to deliver it in an integrated, joined-up way, and £200 million of the £1.7 billion going to the NHS front line is to help develop new models of care. I think that improved home care could be a very real way we do that.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

The “Five Year Forward View” recommended a five-year programme to prevent type 2 diabetes that is evidence-based. How much of the money that the Secretary of State has announced today will be specifically about preventing diabetes, so that in the long run we will save even more money? At the moment, health and wellbeing boards are under no obligation to spend any part of their budget in a specific way on diabetes.

[Mr Hunt]

First, I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on his campaigning on diabetes. I have looked at this carefully as Health Secretary and I looked at the possibility of ring-fencing certain sums in the budget for conditions such as diabetes, but the advice I received was that the broader change we need to make is in the whole mentality across the NHS for dealing with all long-term conditions, not only diabetes, but arthritis, dementia and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. That is because within a couple of years we will have 3 million people who have three or more long-term conditions, one of which is often diabetes. Will a real focus of the change we want to see in the NHS be on people with long-term conditions? Yes, I would say that that is the biggest focus of all in the change we want to see over the next five years.

Ebola

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Monday 13th October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will get back to my hon. Friend with the exact details of what is happening with passport stamps, but I reassure him that we are working very closely with Border Force officials and we have a high degree of confidence that we will be able to identify the vast majority of people who travel from the most directly affected countries within the recent incubation period of the virus. It is important to remember that that incubation period is 21 days, so we are looking at the previous three weeks. We have a high degree of confidence, but I will get my hon. Friend information on whether passport stamps could be an additional source of security.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I join others in congratulating the Secretary of State on initiating screening, as he did on Thursday. That is the right approach, as is targeting it at certain ports. As he knows, viruses do not wait for direct flights and it is extremely important that there is a synergy between our screening processes and those of Sierra Leone and other west African countries. Did we supply the screening equipment, and if we did not, is he satisfied that it is fit for purpose? The same goes for the screening in other hubs throughout Europe.

[Mr Hunt]

We have absolutely checked the screening equipment that is being used in those three countries, and in Sierra Leone, which is our more direct responsibility, that is being done by Public Health England officials. The reports that we are getting back say that people are checked not just once, but several times. It is really important to say that the main purpose of the screening that we are introducing—I call it screening and monitoring, rather than screening—is to identify passengers who may be at higher risk. We are not particularly expecting to identify people showing symptoms because they should have been prevented from leaving the country in the first place, but we want to keep tabs on them while they are in the UK, in their own interests, and that is the purpose of the process.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I agree with my hon. Friend. He has campaigned very honourably and sensibly for children’s heart services at Leeds. This is not a time for speculation. We will announce this month what the new process will be for resolving Safe and Sustainable. He and I both want this to happen as quickly as possible to remove that uncertainty. Also, we have to find a way of making sure that the data are solid and that we can trust them.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

T4. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating Abbey primary school on becoming the first “silver star” school in Leicester for banning sugary drinks and for promoting healthy eating and exercise? Does he agree that this is the best way of preventing diabetes and obesity in later life?

Immigrants (NHS Treatment)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Monday 25th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes a reasonable point. Part of the problem is that when we should be identifying someone as a foreign national who should pay for their NHS care, that does not happen a lot of the time because of the incentives in the system. Under the NHS improvement initiative, which is taking place in London at present—it is worth looking at that closely, because it has a lot of promise—there is a centralised collection of debt from foreign nationals who owe the NHS so that that does not become the responsibility of individual hospitals, which is something that is putting them off registering people as eligible for their NHS care.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

May I invite the Secretary of State to comment on the view that one of the reasons why these proposals are being made at this stage is the conclusion of transitional arrangements for Romanians and Bulgarians at the end of this year? The Minister for Immigration is sitting on his right. Is it possible for the Health Department and the Home Office jointly to commission research so that we can have some actual figures on how many people might be coming at the end of this year?

[Mr Hunt]

The right hon. Gentleman will have to raise the matter of the actual number of people coming to the UK with the Home Secretary or, indeed, the Minister for Immigration.

The right hon. Gentleman is right to say that the issues that we are dealing with are not just about foreign nationals from outside the EU or the European economic area. The rules for EEA members are complex. If people come here to work, we have an obligation under EU law to allow them access to free treatment, but if they are economically inactive or if they are temporary visitors, we should be able to reclaim the cost of that treatment from their home country in the EEA. The fact is that we do that very poorly indeed at the moment and that is one of the things we need to change.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Tuesday 15th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are very keen to ensure that all reconfigurations of services have strong local, clinical support. We are making good progress in this area. There is always a trade-off between access, which I recognise is extremely important in a rural constituency such as the hon. Gentleman’s, and the centralisation of services, which sometimes leads to better clinical outcomes. I am happy to arrange for him to meet me or one of my colleagues to discuss his concerns in more detail.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

Those with diabetes, such as myself, are five times more likely to get cardiovascular diseases. Last year’s National Audit Office report indicated that 1 million diabetics did not get their nine checks. What steps will the Secretary of State take to ensure that those checks are made available to all diabetic patients?

[Mr Hunt]

I congratulate the right hon. Gentleman on his campaigning work for people with diabetes, and I am aware that there are 24,000 premature deaths every year because we are not as good as we need to be at tackling the disease. It is shocking that only half those with diabetes are getting the full set of nine checks that everyone with diabetes should be getting every year, and when we publish the cardiovascular disease outcomes strategy—which I hope will be in spring—I hope we will address some of his concerns about how we can do a better job for diabetes sufferers.

NHS Commissioning Board (Mandate)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Tuesday 13th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right. That is why, at the heart of the mandate, is an information revolution so that the public can understand exactly how well different parts of the system work, and so that we create the right pressures on the system to improve where performance is poor. I agree that the central, top-down structures that we had before did not allow that to happen. If we had cut the budget, as the Opposition wanted, it would have been even more difficult now.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

Tomorrow, as the Secretary of State knows, is world diabetes day. I discovered that I had diabetes only because of a chance visit to my local GP. I welcome what the right hon. Gentleman said about including diabetes in his mandate, but will he mandate the local health authority to test all its patients? Today marks the start of the Hindu new year—Diwali. In this new year statement that he is making today, will he ensure that everyone is tested for diabetes in their local practice?

[Mr Hunt]

As the right hon. Gentleman will know, we are losing 24,000 people unnecessarily every year by not properly recognising the symptoms of diabetes. That is incredibly important. We have made it clear that reducing mortality rates—preventing avoidable mortality—is a major priority of this Government, so I expect this to be a key priority for GP practices and for local authorities throughout the country.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Tuesday 23rd October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The answer is that we are doing quite a lot—a good booklet, “Managing Medicines in Schools and Early Years Settings”, goes around schools, and there are other resources for schools—but we need to do more. We will be announcing a diabetes action plan, a long-term conditions outcomes strategy and a cardiovascular disease outcomes strategy, which will go further to address the issues that my hon. Friend raises.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

I declare my interest as someone who has type 2 diabetes and welcome what the Secretary of State says. However, according to the latest report, another 700,000 people will contract the disease by 2020, and 80% of amputations are avoidable. Could he ensure that this very important subject is on the agenda of local clinical commissioning groups?

[Mr Hunt]

I certainly can. The number of diabetes sufferers overall will go up from about 3.7 million, which is already 5% of the population, to 4.4 million. We need to do a lot better in how we look after people with long-term conditions if the NHS is to be sustainable. We can also do a lot to transfer the individual care of people who have diabetes through things such as technology, which I will look into carefully.

Phone Hacking and the Media

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Keith Vaz

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Ofcom is at liberty to investigate the “fit and proper” issue in the Broadcasting Act 1990 at any time. It will have to investigate that issue to see whether it is relevant to the potential acceptance of any undertakings subsequent to a Competition Commission inquiry. Those issues will therefore be looked at thoroughly and carefully.

[Keith Vaz (Leicester East) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State confirm that the Home Affairs Committee and the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, both of which have held inquiries into these matters, will be consulted about the terms of reference of the public inquiry? I have just received a letter from the Director of Public Prosecutions confirming his view on the law of phone hacking. I see that the Attorney-General is beside the Secretary of State. Is it the Government’s view that we should take the narrow interpretation of the law, as championed by the Metropolitan police, or the wider interpretation, as championed by the DPP?

[Mr Hunt]

The right hon. Gentleman will understand that that question is slightly above my legal pay grade. It is not for the Government to take a view on that matter, but for the courts. If the courts take a view that is not consistent with what we want to see, we are at liberty, as a Parliament, to change the law to ensure that the courts interpret it in the way that we want.