Community Pharmacies

Debate between Ben Bradshaw and Jonathan Ashworth

Wednesday 2nd November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Ben Bradshaw (Exeter) (Lab)]

rose—

[Jonathan Ashworth]

I will give way to my right hon. Friend the Member for Exeter, but then I really must make some progress.

[Mr Bradshaw]

Although the Government say that they want to devote a greater proportion of overall health spending to primary care, our Health Committee’s report on primary care, published in the summer, showed that a smaller proportion was being devoted to the primary care sector, which, of course, includes pharmacies. Is that not the ultimate false economy? If we do not invest more in primary care, all the pressure goes into the acute sector.

[Jonathan Ashworth]

My right hon. Friend is another experienced former Health Minister, and he is right. As we learned this week, the Health Committee has completely blown apart the Government’s figures on the financing of the NHS.