NHS (Government Spending)

Debate between Barbara Keeley and Baroness Primarolo

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Barbara Keeley]

I am pointing at myself.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dame Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. Mr Heaton-Harris, will you allow the intervention to take place? I am sure you will have a chance to join the debate when you catch my eye later. However, I do not want interventions to be overlong either, because we do not have much time left in the debate. Barbara Keeley, will you therefore please be brief?

[Barbara Keeley]

Will the Minister address the issue of delayed discharges and the impact of cutting community resources? We have touched on social care in general practice, funding for which has really been cut, but the big issue that comes up again and again before the Health Select Committee concerns the loss of thousands of district nurses. I heard yesterday that in the north-west agencies do not even have supply district nurses. Will he address the matter of those community resources? He is talking about community care for the elderly and vulnerable. What will be done about district nurses?

Accident and Emergency Waiting Times

Debate between Barbara Keeley and Baroness Primarolo

Wednesday 5th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Barbara Keeley (Worsley and Eccles South) (Lab)]

We have a crisis in A and E; that is clear from this afternoon’s debate. The King’s Fund report this week detailed the worst performance in nine years, with 5.9% of patients waiting more than four hours. It has been suggested that patients are just going where the lights are on. Is that the case?

I got information on A and E from the chief executive of Salford Royal NHS Trust, comparing the third and fourth quarters of 2011-12 with those in 2012-13. He found that there are 10% more ambulance arrivals every day. We actually have sicker patients, with more arriving by ambulance. There has been a 13% increase in admissions of people staying longer than 72 hours, and fewer are staying for shorter periods. There are 25% more triages into the hospital’s resuscitation area, and there has been a significant increase in risk and co-morbidity among patients and increased admissions into critical care. There is something going on there.

We know that the rising demand for A and E is particularly concentrated in those aged over 85, and cuts in social care budgets are now widely acknowledged as contributing factors. My local authority of Salford must make £24 million of cuts this year. It is the third year of cuts, and now the authority, having held on to services meeting a moderate level of eligibility, is moving to meeting only substantial levels of eligibility, taking £3.5 million out of adult social care this year and £3.5 million next year. Our former Salford primary care trust had already cut the two walk-in centres that we had, and axed the pilot of active case management for people with long-term conditions.

How is that affecting people? What do carers say? Carers UK has carried out a survey of 3,500 carers, 55% of whom are caring for a person who has been admitted to emergency hospital services in the past three years. A significant percentage of those carers referred to areas where additional support could have prevented those emergency admissions. What types of care were needed? Six per cent. said that they, the carer, needed replacement care because they were ill themselves; 21% per cent. needed a higher quality of care and support for the cared-for person; 10% needed adaptations in the home, and 7% would have been helped by telecare and telehealth. Those findings tie in with some of my casework in recent weeks, when I have heard some very similar cases.

The King’s Fund report tells us that the prospects for adult social care are bleak. Councils are planning to reduce their budgets by another £800 million a year. That is a cumulative cut since 2010 of 20% in adult social care. My local hospital tells me that patients are coming in sicker, they are admitted for longer stays, they require more time and attention and they are now heavy resource-users. It is time that Ministers stopped making excuses and started dealing with this crisis.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

I call Andy Slaughter. You have one minute.

Social Care (Local Sufficiency) and Identification of Carers Bill

Debate between Barbara Keeley and Baroness Primarolo

Friday 7th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Barbara Keeley]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. Is it not now the case that the hon. Gentleman is departing too far from the Bill’s content? I do not think that a discussion of the website of the Princess Royal Trust for Carers has anything to do with this Second Reading debate.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

This is a matter for the Chair. There is an argument that reference to the trust’s details is relevant to the Bill. The trust is also identified clearly in the House of Commons research paper.

Although this is not on a point of order, while I am on my feet I remind the hon. Member for Bury North (Mr Nuttall) that, in principle, it is not permitted to read a speech in the Chamber. It is permissible to refer to notes and read short extracts from documents, but I think that he is stretching that widely now. He is in order and I hope that he will stay in order. I am sure that he is about to conclude to allow others to speak.

--- Later in debate ---

[Barbara Keeley]

I welcome what the Minister says, and it would help me and the organisations and individuals who have worked with me on the Bill if he confirmed it in writing. Opposition Members do not want a plethora of duties. The Bill, in imposing duties on local authorities, might be a little too extensive, but it contains two important points that must be taken forward. The first is to have a picture of sufficiency and not to have to do everything through freedom of information requests, which might require local authorities to go a bit further than they currently do. Secondly, although there is some wonderful practice among health professionals in identifying carers, we need to go further to ensure that health bodies understand that they must have policies in place. We need to do more than just encourage a few champions to take that forward. They are the people who will have the best picture of families and the caring situations of young carers. They are the only ones who can do it. I have wonderful practice in my constituency, as well as places where it is not happening at all and people are left to their own devices. Out of everything in the Bill, those are the two points that are important to take forward. One is—

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. I think the Minister gets the point.

Summer Adjournment

Debate between Barbara Keeley and Baroness Primarolo

Tuesday 19th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Barbara Keeley]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. The Minister has just replied to the debate very fully, and I thank him for responding to my points and those raised by other Members. A while ago, however, his hon. Friend the Under-Secretary of State for Health, the hon. Member for Guildford (Anne Milton), was answering a debate in Westminster Hall, ran out of time, and said what Ministers frequently say: “I will respond later to the points with which I have not managed to deal today.” I have received no replies to the questions that I raised on that occasion, and I wonder if you can advise me, Madam Deputy Speaker, on what we can do when Ministers make pledges of that kind and do not follow them up.

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

That is not a point of order for the Chair. However, the hon. Lady has taken the opportunity to make the point directly to the Minister. I am sure that he has heard what she has said, and that he fully intends to reply to the points that have not been dealt with today.

Use of the Chamber (United Kingdom Youth Parliament)

Debate between Barbara Keeley and Baroness Primarolo

Tuesday 20th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Philip Davies]

Will the hon. Lady give way? Or has she finished her speech?

[Madam Deputy Speaker (Dawn Primarolo)]

Order. Has the hon. Lady finished her speech?

[Barbara Keeley]

Yes.

[Madam Deputy Speaker]

In that case, given that the hon. Member for Shipley (Philip Davies) is on his feet, he has the Floor.