NHS and Social Care Funding

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Evans of Rainow

Wednesday 11th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I agree that staff numbers are critical, but we have, since 2010, 1,500 more doctors in our A&E departments and 600 more consultants. Across the NHS, we have more than 11,000 additional doctors, so we do recognise the pressures that the NHS faces. Indeed, we have 1,600 more doctors than this time last year, so we are doing a great deal to solve the problem.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend agree that we need to learn best practice in the NHS? The hospitals that manage to integrate health and social care, such as those in Wigan and Salford which have managed to create those beds, are providing examples of best practice from which the whole NHS can learn.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. It is a mistake in this debate to try—as I understand Opposition parties want to do—to boil this all down to the issue of Government funding when there is actually a lot of variability in the country. At this time of year, which is always difficult, some hospitals are doing superbly well in extremely challenging circumstances. We have just heard about some of the hospitals that are doing well, and there are a number of them.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Evans of Rainow

Monday 18th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is right that I sprinted here—I was a little concerned that Defence questions might not last the full hour, although they did, and I am sure Mr Speaker is pleased about that. The point I would make about the ballot, which did receive the overwhelming support of junior doctors, is that it happened before they knew what the deal on the table was. On the heated issue of Saturday premium rates, we ended up with a proposal where the Government agreed to pay premium pay on Saturdays for any doctors who work one Saturday or more a month. At the moment, therefore, we have this extreme step—the withdrawal of emergency care—to boost the pay of doctors who work less than one Saturday a month. I think many members of the public will say that that is not proportionate.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

Let us be clear: this is an old-fashioned wage dispute, run by one of the most militant long-standing trade unions. My constituents are asking why the highest-paid NHS workers should be paid extra for working Saturdays when some of the lowest-paid NHS workers are not.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right. Doctors who strike will need to explain that to paramedics, healthcare assistants and nurses working in their own operating theatres. In the end, that issue is why this strike is happening. The BMA said in writing in November that it would negotiate on Saturday pay; it went back on its word in February. As a result, this is the only outstanding issue, and we now have this extreme step—the withdrawal of emergency care. I find that very hard to justify.

NHS Reform

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Evans of Rainow

Thursday 16th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I do not blame doctors; I do not blame the unions. I blame Ministers from the hon. Lady’s Government who gave consultants an opt-out at weekends that has had a catastrophic impact on patient care. I am delighted that she supports seven-day care, but it was not in the Labour manifesto; it was in the Conservative manifesto, and we are putting in extra money—£5.5 billion more than Labour was promising—to ensure that we can pay for it.

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

I welcome the changes that my right hon. Friend has announced today in turning the NHS into a learning organisation rather than a denial machine. Does he agree that there should be a best practice industry standard for healthcare in this country, which learns and compares itself with other countries’ healthcare systems, such as Germany, France and Canada?

[Mr Hunt]

That is a very interesting idea, and I am happy to take it away. I am a strong believer in learning from best practice all over the world. Sometimes it is difficult to gather the data, but it is an interesting idea.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Lord Evans of Rainow

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Graham Evans (Weaver Vale) (Con)]

5. What steps he plans to take to improve dementia diagnosis and care.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

Following a sustained effort to improve dementia diagnosis rates in the last Parliament I am pleased to report that in England we now diagnose 61.6% of those with dementia, which we believe is the highest diagnosis rate in the world. But there is much work to be done to make sure that the quality of dementia care post diagnosis is as consistent as it should be.

[Graham Evans]

I thank my right hon. Friend for his answer. A long-standing Weaver Vale constituent, Mrs Gladys Archer, successfully looked after her husband for many, many years at home until he was admitted to hospital for a routine operation. Following a misdiagnosis, he has had to go into a care home with all the personal cost and trials and tribulations that that involves. Will my right hon. Friend look into that case, and highlight what measures are in place and how we can improve matters so that we can stop patients with Alzheimer’s or dementia suffering when they are admitted to hospital?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for raising that case and I will happily look into it. That is a perfect example of why we need to change the way we look after people with long-term conditions, such as dementia, out of hospital. If we can improve the care that we give them at home and give better support to people such as that man’s wife, we can ensure that the kind of tragedy my hon. Friend talks about does not happen.