Health and Social Care

Debate between Andy Burnham and Gary Streeter

Monday 13th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Gary Streeter (South West Devon) (Con)]

It is a real joy to follow the hon. Member for Plymouth, Moor View (Alison Seabeck), my next-door neighbour—you are being extremely skilful in your selection of speakers today, Mr Deputy Speaker. I very much enjoyed her contribution; she spoke in her usual trenchant and passionate style. I also enjoyed hearing about the work that her late father was involved in, and I can say with some confidence that he would be extremely proud of her and all that she has done in her time as a Member of Parliament.

I liked the Queen’s Speech, but it was a little long for my liking. I was looking forward to the Queen sitting on the throne and saying, “My Government have decided to introduce no new laws this year, but to concentrate on implementing and overseeing well the policies that we have already passed and the laws that we have already put in place.” As we all know, coming to the House and taking legislation through involves a huge time commitment for Ministers, and there is a huge case to be made for Ministers to focus on implementing well the things that we have already decided. We have been radical in the past three years in this Parliament, so let us make sure that the policies now work in practice on the ground—let us set our Ministers free to do that. Interestingly, the key areas our constituents are most concerned about—getting the deficit down, getting the economy moving and cracking down on immigration—do not require any legislation at all. They simply require us to do well the things we have already decided.

I welcome the Queen’s Speech and, despite having said what I just said, the increased attention on immigration, which is what our constituents want. The reaction of my constituents to some of the tough measures we have introduced so far on immigration and on welfare changes is, “It’s about time. We have been waiting for this for many years.” So I support the broad direction of travel of the Government, and I have full confidence in the Health Secretary.

I want to make two points in a brief contribution about health issues, the first of which is about the challenge of urgent care. Our parliamentary system has many strengths, but one weakness is that every Government Member is inclined to say that everything we are doing is wonderful, while the Opposition are inclined to say that everything we are doing is rubbish. We all know that the truth lies somewhere in between. I support and pay tribute to the fact that we continue to pump fresh money into the health system year after year. The shadow Health Secretary is convinced that we are not meeting our commitment to increase health spending above inflation every year—I think we are, but of course there is a debate to be had. I do know that there are pressure points in the health system that need to be tackled, and urgent care is one of them.

[Andy Burnham]

The hon. Gentleman’s association with the detail seemed to be loose there; Andrew Dilnot wrote to the Government to say that health spending was lower in real terms in 2010-11 than it was when Labour left government. It is important to point out that the promise the hon. Gentleman stood on was for real-terms increases in every year of this Parliament and that that has not been honoured.

[Mr Streeter]

That is Andrew Dilnot’s opinion, but it is not mine—that is the point I am seeking to make. [Interruption.] The right hon. Gentleman’s speech was riddled with references to spending—more spending on health and on local councils—but is he not aware that this year the deficit in this country will still be, even after three years of austerity, £110 billion? If he comes to the Dispatch Box to make speeches about extra spending for health and local councils, he is obliged to tell us where that money will come from. At the moment, I can see no signs of it whatever.

[Andy Burnham]

rose—

[Mr Streeter]

I will not take any further interventions, but let us not hear any further speeches calling for extra spending unless we know where the money is coming from.

As I was saying, before I was so rudely interrupted, there are pressure points in the health system, and urgent care is one of them. This is about not only accident and emergency departments, but GP and out-of-hours services, community nursing, social care, ambulance services and hospital beds—there is pressure on all those points.

The hon. Member for Plymouth, Moor View and I are fortunate to go to Derriford hospital in Plymouth for briefings. I have been going slightly longer than she has—21 years—and I can tell the House that in good times and in bad times Derriford hospital is under pressure. It has a running capacity of about 95%, which means that when there are spikes, as there have been this winter, it can be running at 103% capacity, which puts the hard-working staff under enormous pressure. Even when the Labour Government were spending money as though it were going out of fashion, I have never gone to Derriford hospital and had the staff tell me, “It’s fine. There are no pressure points. Everything is working in our health service. It’s all working well and waiting lists are coming down.” That has not happened once in 21 years.