Oral Answers to Questions

Andy Burnham Excerpts

Tuesday 18th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

If the hon. Gentleman would care to write to me setting out where he believes there are inaccuracies, we will examine them.

[Andy Burnham (Leigh) (Lab)]

It is good to be back. I see that in my absence, the Secretary of State has at last made some progress with his plans for a US-style health care system.

I have a letter sent by the practice that my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North (Helen Jones) mentioned a moment ago, in which it wrote that

“we can no longer offer your procedure as one of our NHS services…I am writing to make you aware of some of the options that you have to have the procedure completed as a private patient.”

Helpfully, it enclosed a leaflet announcing the practice’s new private minor operations service. Can the Minister point me to any part of the Health and Social Care Bill that will prevent that practice in future?

[Paul Burstow]

I wonder whether the right hon. Gentleman could have pointed me to any such arrangements in current legislation. There is none. However, Dr David Geddes, the medical director of NHS North Yorkshire and York, has stated:

“We have some concerns about the activities of the Haxby and Wigginton health centre in York and we will be discussing these issues with them directly as a matter of urgency. These concerns are around possible breaches of the Data Protection Act and the accuracy of the information sent to patients. For example, of the eight procedures they list, three are routinely funded by NHS North Yorkshire and York”.

Let us be clear that when he was Secretary of State, that PCT was in a worse financial state.

[Andy Burnham]

That is total bluster, because that vision is precisely what the Government want to do to our NHS. As my hon. Friend the Member for Warrington North said, it is a terrifying glimpse of a Tory NHS in future—not a national health service but a postcode lottery writ large, in which, as we read today, random rationing is taking place around the country. The NHS is in chaos because the Secretary of State made the mistake of combining a £2.5 billion reorganisation, at a time when every ounce of energy should be focused on the NHS front line. This Secretary of State has placed our national health service in the danger zone, and he has lost the confidence of GPs, nurses and midwives. Is it not time that he stopped digging in, listened to NHS staff and dropped this damaging Bill?

[Paul Burstow]

That was a good example of bluster—perhaps that is what we will see from the Opposition under the right hon. Gentleman’s stewardship.

The right hon. Gentleman ought to be aware, because it happened on his watch, that primary care trusts and strategic health authorities have seen their management costs increase by more than £1 billion. There was a 120% increase from 2002 to when this Government took office. That is why we are determined to cut overhead costs in the NHS, so that we can reinvest every penny in the front line.