Draft Health Care Services (Provider Selection Regime) Regulations 2023

Adam Holloway Excerpts

Tuesday 28th November 2023 General Committees

[Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con)]

While the shadow Minister makes some genuinely very interesting points, the idea that there were lots of Conservative donors making huge amounts of money through contracts at times such as the covid crisis cannot keep going unchallenged. One of the examples that is often held up is a constituent and close friend of mine, Samir Jassal. I think he gave £2,000 to my campaign in 2010, and served as a councillor in the Painters Ash ward. His partnership got many millions of pounds-worth of personal protective equipment contracts. It is utterly preposterous to think that my right hon. Friend the Member for West Suffolk (Matt Hancock) rang up a bloke who once gave money to my campaign and was a councillor in Painters Ash, going, “Oi, mate. You gave a bit of cash to Adam Holloway a few years ago. Would you like a 10 million quid contract?” It is preposterous.

There are proper examples of waste—I am not disputing that at all—but the other thing I will point out is that this was a time when the entire world was screaming out for the same bits of kit. We had factories in China and people from every country on Earth, basically, trying to get rid of pallet loads of it. These supposed covid profiteers were actually entrepreneurs who did something that neither I nor the civil service could have done. The fact that lots of them happened to have met people in the Conservative party is perhaps a tribute to the fact that those in the Tory party are more likely to know the entrepreneurs and wealth generators of this country than my friends in the Opposition.

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[Andrew Stephenson]

The most suitable provider process is designed with the NHS to give the right level of flexibility for the NHS. Commissioners can choose how to balance the key criteria, so value is used alongside the other criteria set out in the process. I know the hon. Lady has come to many debates over the years and said that the Government are privatising the NHS. In 2013-14, 6.1% of total health spending was spent on the purchase of healthcare from the independent sector. In 2021-22, the figure was 5.9%, so the idea that we are privatising the NHS is just nonsense. I want to ensure that that is on the record.

[Adam Holloway]

To me, this is complete nonsense. It is absolutely ridiculous to say that if a private provider does something, the profits go to shareholders and are not reinvested in the NHS. The hon. Member for Wirral West is basically saying that the means of production should be entirely in the hands of the state. What about when we buy tanks? Do we say that we should make the tanks ourselves and not let evil BAE Systems shareholders take the profits? It is preposterous.

[Andrew Stephenson]

My hon. Friend put that eloquently and made a very good point.

The shadow Minister, the hon. Member for Birmingham, Edgbaston, mentioned one of her recent visits, so I want to put on the record one of my recent visits. Just last week, I visited University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, which opened a Macmillan Cancer Centre in 2012. It is a diagnostic centre that treats a wide range of cancer and non-cancer conditions, and it is integrated with the Macmillan support and information service for patients and their carers and families. To me, that is integration in action, which is what we are looking at today. The statutory instrument recognises the important role that all providers play by treating none of them differently, irrespective of whether they are a statutory NHS body, an independent social enterprise or a charity. Indeed, the Committee knows that the NHS already relies on a diversity of providers, because what is most important is doing what is right by patients.

I hope I have provided sufficient answers to the questions raised by hon. Members today. The regulations are necessary to enable the transformation that the NHS needs to deliver better joined-up services, and I commend them to the Committee.

Question put and agreed to.

Public Health

Adam Holloway Excerpts

Wednesday 6th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con)]

I again congratulate the Government on their amazing foresight and on getting so far ahead of the game with the vaccination programme. A few minutes ago, I spoke to a prominent Gravesend GP, Dr Rubin Minhas. For the last couple of weeks, he and his team have been busy contacting local over-80s to book them in for their inoculations at the surgery. In order to do that, he has had to get all his staff on the phones—all the receptionists, and husbands, wives and partners. That is having a real effect on the day-to-day work of the surgery. We should be giving GPs more help with bookings, especially since this will ramp up as more vaccine becomes available and it is given to different groups.

Throughout all this, many people have been really quite heroic, especially all the people who go to work day after day knowing that they have an underlying health condition that makes them particularly vulnerable to the virus. One headteacher in my constituency has shown what can only be described as extraordinary bravery, going into school every day and risking his life. We all know of people in our constituencies—there are perhaps tens of thousands of them around the country—who knowingly put their lives at risk every single day in the public sector and the private sector, in schools, supermarkets, hospitals and food packaging plants. I am glad that such people will soon be inoculated, but I do not think it is right that there should be any acceleration for those working in particular settings such as schools who are not in vulnerable groups. That would delay what the Prime Minister describes as the firebreak, whereby we deal with the people who are most likely to die and stop deaths going off the cliff.

We need a can-do attitude. In rolling out this massive programme of vaccination, it is critical that everyone in the public service shows the can-do attitude that we have witnessed from all the staff at Darent Valley Hospital who have been looking after my constituents over all these months. All of us in public service should be following their example to do everything we can do to get these first four groups vaccinated. This is not the time for bureaucracy or for finding reasons why something cannot be done or why it is too difficult. I was horrified to hear that one hospital received 3,000 doses of vaccine on the Wednesday before Christmas but did not start using it until nearly five days later. Everyone in this country —especially those of us paid from the public purse—must treat this vaccination programme with the greatest urgency. This is a national emergency, and there should be no room for anyone who is not on a war footing to get these early groups vaccinated.

Covid-19

Adam Holloway Excerpts

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con)]

First, I thank the care home staff and NHS staff in my constituency, particularly the medical staff at Darent Valley Hospital and Medway Maritime Hospital, who I know have their work cut out for them at the moment.

I would like to again bang the drum for the hospitality industry. If we believe that the main drivers of infection are hospital and care home settings, schools and households mixing within family homes, should we not be doing everything we can to avoid such household mixing? Regrettably, I firmly believe that many people in this country, unable to go into bars and restaurants, are mixing in unsuitable conditions in other people’s homes. We have seen since the end of the first lockdown the extraordinary and incredibly expensive efforts of the hospitality industry to make preparations to minimise the risks to their staff and customers and to stay afloat as businesses. When I look at establishments owned by friends of mine such as the Iron Pier brewery in Northfleet, the Griffin Inn in Fletching or TJ’s pub in Gravesend, I see that the driving principle of customer service for them since the first lockdown is the safety of their customers and their staff.

We have seen no evidence at all to confirm that people are more at risk in pubs than in private homes or more at risk congregating in well-run hospitality establishments. If we are knowingly going to crash the businesses and the life’s work of so many entrepreneurs in the hospitality industry, which we will be doing by knowingly restricting their ability to trade in the run-up to Christmas, when trading this month might actually save many of them, it would be nice if we could at least provide some evidence to support that.

[Steve Brine]

Does my hon. Friend share the concern of many Members in this House about so-called wet pubs? The Bakers Arm in Winchester contacted me this morning to say they are finding it difficult to take seeing the bustling high street all around them and people sitting outside coffee shops drinking cappuccinos, yet people cannot buy anything from their businesses. They are literally going under. Does he have that same problem in his constituency?

[Adam Holloway]

I completely agree with my hon. Friend. I said the other day that the last time I went into the Compass Ale House in Gravesend, it was literally like putting myself under the control of a manager saying, “Sanitise your hands. Do this. Do that. Sit down. Don’t do that. Why have you taken your mask off?”

I am absolutely not suggesting that pubs open as normal—in fact to the contrary, and that is the point. They are ready to operate safely in the new normal that they have arranged at such huge cost. I suggest a well-run pub is a safer environment for people to meet their friends than their front rooms, but like everyone in Whitehall and across the country, we have absolutely no idea either way. It is just a hunch.

[Craig Mackinlay (South Thanet) (Con)]

To assist my hon. Friend, he may be aware there was a report out based upon some work in south-east Asia. That seems to have been the basis of this risk assessment for hospitality, and it was not long ago that Public Health England itself said that potentially only 5% of infections were caused in the hospitality sector. I share his concerns, and I am sure he is critical of the risk assessment, just as I am.

[Adam Holloway]

I wish I had spoken to my hon. Friend last night when I was looking for precisely that research. There is absolutely no reason why councils and the police cannot be given draconian powers to shut down establishments that are operating unsafely.

My second point is that we are looking forward to the Christmas relaxation of the rules, which I know will be hugely welcomed by hundreds of thousands of families across the country who have had it very hard over the past few months. At present, the virus appears to be circulating among school-aged children and their parents. Thank heavens that is usually without serious effect, although we have had many tragedies.

Over the Christmas period, people have been told that they can mix and that generations can mix. I strongly suggest to my constituents that while we may be allowed to do so, some might choose not to. It strikes me that there is a great risk of parents and children passing on the virus to grandparents, leaving the country in a very poor position as we enter the coldest months of the year, when transmission rates will inevitably be highest.

After the extraordinary foresight of the Government in securing the vaccines and with the likelihood soon of many, many millions of doses of the Oxford vaccine coming online, I suggest that while families are allowed to do something, it might just be better to wait another four or five months. I know a lot of people are talking about Australia at the moment for some reason. My constituent, Mr Hamilton, suggests that some families should consider, like Australia, celebrating together towards the beginning of the summer, once the vaccines are rolled out and we are out of the worst of the winter. We may be allowed to do things, but people should listen to the Prime Minister and be very careful.

Oral Answers to Questions

Adam Holloway Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Commons Chamber

The Secretary of State was asked—

[Mr Adam Holloway (Gravesham) (Con)]

1. What progress his Department has made on improving primary care for frail older people.

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

It is a particular pleasure to be here this morning, although I appreciate that that feeling may not be reciprocated on all sides of the House.

Our NHS will not be sustainable unless we totally transform out-of-hospital care. That is why we have introduced the £3.9 billion merger of the health and social care systems, and reforms to the GP contract. We are encouraging clinical commissioners to be responsible for all out-of-hospital commissioning.

[Mr Holloway]

I am delighted that my right hon. Friend is answering questions today. Will he confirm that the changes announced will mean that frail elderly patients in Gravesham will have a single person to co-ordinate their care?

[Mr Hunt]

There is agreement across the House that we need a focus on frail elderly patients and a system in which everybody knows, for their mum, dad or grandparents, that there is someone in the NHS where the buck stops in relation to complex, long-term conditions. That is a condition of the better care fund, so I hope that that will make a big difference in my hon. Friend’s constituency.