Oral Answers to Questions Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateAlexander Stafford
Main Page: Alexander Stafford (Conservative - Rother Valley)Department Debates - View all Alexander Stafford's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(1 year, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberI can reassure the hon. Gentleman on that. I would have thought that he would also welcome the commitment to a £15 billion to £20 billion increase in R&D investment, the championing of life sciences that the Minister for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Colchester (Will Quince), has been leading on, and the opportunity we have to address greater variation within the NHS by bringing forward the innovations from our life industry and applying them much more quickly.
That is something that we are working on very actively. As well as financially supporting GPs to roll out new and better ways of managing their appointments, we are looking at what criteria we expect from GPs. We already set out some moves in our summer action plan, but we will be looking further at preventing the lamentable situation my hon. Friend describes of people being asked to ring back or being held in long phone queues. That is not acceptable.