Accident and Emergency Departments

Andrew Bridgen Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will of course look at that closely. I have been to Kettering hospital and recognise that it is very busy and that people there are working very hard, but I think that the staff are doing a fantastic job.

[Andrew Bridgen (North West Leicestershire) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend pledge to do everything in his power to undo the mess created by Labour’s 2004 GP contract give-away in order to help restore the essential link between patients and family doctors, which will lead to better patient outcomes and reduce pressure on our A and E departments?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am astonished that the Labour party seeks to defend those changes to the GP contract, which got rid of named GPs, removed responsibility for out-of-hours services from them and broke the personal responsibility that the best GPs always wanted to feel for the people on their list. In fact, many brave practices refused to go along with those contract changes and continue to have named GPs. There is clear evidence that people who have named GPs use hospital services less. If we are going to give older people the right care, we need to undo those damaging changes.