Future of Health and Care

Barry Sheerman Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The NHS is not privatised at all. The NHS is delivered free at the point of care, or free at the point of use, according to need, not ability to pay. Of course, the NHS buys all sorts of things—it buys goods, technology, scalpels and services of different scales and sizes—and it employs people, and this combination is essentially what the NHS is made up of. It matters not the name of the provision; what matters is the care for the patients, and the quality of support for the population’s health. The pandemic has demonstrated that what matters is the outcomes, and the coming together of different types of provision has always contributed to the delivery of care for patients, as my hon. Friend set out. That will no doubt happen for the entire future of the NHS, which I have absolutely no doubt will go from strength to strength, not just now, after the last 72 years, but for the next 72 years, and after that.

[Mr Barry Sheerman (Huddersfield) (Lab/Co-op) [V]]

I am fully in favour of a review of the NHS that brings it up to date and makes it the best healthcare centre in the world, but if he wants to make this a milestone, surely he should slow down a bit. Why not consult cross-party? At this unique time, when we have all been in this together, why can he not consult more? Why does he not to listen to the people, and consult those who work in the NHS, as well as the people who have benefited from it? Why rush this? Why not talk about it and get cross-party support? Politicians of all kinds have never ever got the NHS absolutely right. Why not work together across party lines, and consult the people who work in the NHS, and those who benefit from it? Slow down, Secretary of State, and you will get me on your side.

[Matt Hancock]

I very much hope to get the hon. Gentleman on side and supporting these reforms, not least because many of them were in not just the Conservative party manifesto, but the Labour party manifesto on which he stood. We have consulted extensively on the measures in this set of reforms over two years. I look forward to further work, consultation and discussions with parliamentarians on all sides before, during and no doubt after the passage of the Bill. It is an incredibly important piece of work. What I do not want to do is delay the improvements that people on the frontline have called for. The core measures of this Bill have been built on the asks of the NHS, working with local government, and I think we should get on and deliver that.