Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 26th February 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I shall try to give a one-sentence answer. The Bishop is free to make whatever recommendations he likes, and we have facilitated introductions to other Departments so that he can liaise with them during his review.

[Sir Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

5. What recent assessment the Government have made of the prospects for peace and stability in Zimbabwe.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 30th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will happily send him a copy of my speech so that he can see exactly what I said. What he will see is that I said it was very important that the UK and continental Europe work together to stand against precisely those totalitarian regimes.

[Sir Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

11. What discussions he has had with his US counterpart on the proposed (a) content and (b) timeline for a US-brokered peace plan for Israel and the Palestinians.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 19th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Lewer (Northampton South) (Con)]

18. What steps he is taking to encourage the adoption of personal health and care budgets.

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

I know that the thoughts of the whole House are with the families affected by the terrible atrocity a year ago.

Personal health budgets have a transformative effect on people with very complex health needs, and we plan for 50,000 to 100,000 more people to benefit from them by 2021.

[Sir Henry Bellingham]

I thank the Secretary of State for that reply. Does he agree that a key part of integrating health and social care is giving individuals more say and flexibility in how they use their entitlements? Will he consider extending his pilots to my constituency of North West Norfolk?

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely, and not just to North West Norfolk, but to the whole country. We are currently consulting on giving a right to personal health budgets to people with the most complex health needs. That would be about 350,000 people and would include anyone with a continuing NHS need combined with a mental health need, a learning disability, autism or PTSD. Obviously, it would be hugely significant if we were able to proceed with that.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is totally unacceptable, which is why we announced a £300 million expansion of CAMHS in the autumn. CAMHS funding went up by 20% last year. We are specifically trying to end precisely the situation that the hon. Lady mentioned, whereby people are told that they are not yet ill enough to get treatment. We have to put a stop to that.

[Sir Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

T8. Will the Secretary of State join me in paying tribute to all the staff of my local Queen Elizabeth Hospital, which he knows very well? Indeed, the Minister—my hon. Friend and neighbour the Member for North East Cambridgeshire (Stephen Barclay)—also knows the hospital very well because it serves his constituency. Does he agree that the hospital has done a superb job this winter, and that assurances and clarity on the current nurses’ pay negotiations will help with both recruitment and retention in the future?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

2. What progress has been made on turning around hospitals in special measures.

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

In the past four years, 31 trusts have been put into special measures, more than one in 10 of all NHS trusts. Of those, 15 have now come out and I particularly congratulate the staff of Sherwood Forest, Wye Valley, and Norfolk and Suffolk trusts which have come out of special measures in the past month.

[Sir Henry Bellingham]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the sustainability and transformation plan for Norfolk and Waveney is a vital part of the Queen Elizabeth hospital’s future as it successfully moves out of special measures? Although there is overwhelming support for integrating health and social care, will he confirm that there will be full consultation with different patient groups on the STP?

[Mr Hunt]

I can absolutely give that assurance. Through my hon. Friend I congratulate the staff of King’s Lynn hospital who have turned things around there. It was a great privilege for me to visit it and see the work that they have done. My hon. Friend is right—the next step is to integrate the work done in acute hospitals with what happens in the community and the social care system. That is why the open and transparent STP process is so important.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 11th October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Sir Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

8. What progress his Department is making on turning around hospitals in special measures.

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

In the last four years, 29 trusts have been put into special measures; that is more than one in 10 of all NHS trusts. Of those, 12 have now come out, having demonstrated sustainable improvements in safety and quality of care. There are nearly 1,300 more doctors and 4,200 nurses working in trusts that have been put into special measures.

[Sir Henry Bellingham]

The Secretary of State will be aware because he visited it last year, that the Queen Elizabeth hospital in my constituency has come out of special measures. It has made excellent progress, not least by introducing Saturday lists for in-patients and putting in place numerous measures to transform the out-patients department. Will he join me in paying tribute to all staff of the hospital, particularly the chief executive, Dorothy Hosein, and the chairman, Edward Libbey, for the excellent progress that they have made?

[Mr Hunt]

I am very happy to do that, and I very much enjoyed my visit to the QE with my hon. Friend a couple of years ago. This is a very good example of how trusts can be transformed when they go into special measures. Since coming out of special measures, the QE has opened a state-of-the-art laparoscopic theatre, got a dedicated breast unit, and expanded its A&E. It has got 72 more nurses over the past few years. It is a good example to many other trusts in special measures, and it shows that that really can be a turning point, bringing about benefits for patients and staff.

Special Measures Regime

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 16th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am afraid that that is the difference between Government and Opposition Members. The hon. Lady says that there was denial over Jimmy Savile, but I stood at this Dispatch Box and apologised to relatives and members of the public for the mistakes relating to Jimmy Savile. I do not call that denial; I call it facing up to the past.

Of course, inspection is not the only answer, but the reason it was so wrong to abolish the expert-led inspections we used to have in social care is that the first step, if we are trying to improve standards, is at least to know where the problems are. Until we have those expert-led inspections, we will not know that. The next step is to work out how to solve the problems. We will be doing both.

[Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

The Queen Elizabeth hospital in King’s Lynn serves my constituency and that of the Secretary of State’s deputy, the Minister of State, Department of Health, the hon. Member for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb). Will the Secretary of State pay tribute to the superb acting chief executive, Manjit Obhrai, and the former acting chairman, David Dean, who have done a sterling job, along with the hard-working staff, on the hospital’s comprehensive improvement plan? When will that hospital come out of special measures, and will he pay tribute to the excellent work that has been done in the past few months?

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do so. The hospital has recruited 95 more nurses and nursing support staff since last July. It has appointed a director of nursing and a medical director and lead for patient safety, which strengthens clinical leadership. Some very important changes have been made, and I pay tribute to the hospital’s leadership for making that possible. I hope my hon. Friend understands that, under the new system we have set up, it is not for the Secretary of State or any Minister to say when a trust is ready to come out of special measures. We have deliberately given that judgment to an independent chief inspector, so that no one who has a vested interest or a hope that a hospital will come out of special measures, and no one who is involved in turning around a trust, is responsible for that important independent judgment. However, that means that, when hospitals come out of special measures, people can have confidence that the judgment has been correctly made.

Urgent and Emergency Care Review

Debate between Lord Bellingham and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 12th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I think the right hon. Gentleman will find that some of the competition law powers that are being used and are causing Sir David worry were actually from the Enterprise Act 2002, which we are now looking at to see whether we can sort it out.

[Mr Henry Bellingham (North West Norfolk) (Con)]

Is the Secretary of State aware that hospitals in Norfolk have recently made it clear to MPs that one of the key drivers of a big increase in people going to A and E is the fact that many people are not going to their doctor? Does he agree that it is essential that the GP contract of 2004 is rewritten so that doctors provide that 24/7 cover? When will he be able to sit down with the BMA and make real progress to right a serious mistake that the Opposition made?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend speaks wisely. The most senior A and E doctor in the country, Professor Keith Willett, said that he thought that between 15% and 30% of the people attending A and E could be looked after in the community. This is a root cause of pressure. I am afraid that the Labour party needs to show some humility before it starts whipping up public concern about problems that it had a very big part in making. I am in the process of discussions with the BMA, and I hope my hon. Friend will not have to wait too long for some good news.