NHS Long-term Plan

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Monday 7th January 2019 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

No; we are proposing to have more targeted support for those who need it, to ensure that we get support to the areas of nursing with the most acute shortages, such as community nursing and mental health services. That is where support is best targeted.

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

My constituency is one of the 25 trailblazer areas that will have new mental health support teams working in and around schools. Will the Secretary of State give further details on what this plan will do to deliver improved mental health services on the ground, particularly for young people in schools?

[Matt Hancock]

Supporting children with mental ill health is an incredibly important part of the plan, from early intervention on anxiety and depression through to support for those with more serious mental health conditions. It means that there will be dedicated support that can link with schools’ mental health services and help signpost in what is often a complicated system. The Mental Health Minister, my hon. Friend the Member for Thurrock, has already agreed to meet my hon. Friend to discuss this further. It is an important and welcome intervention.

Prevention of Ill Health: Government Vision

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Monday 5th November 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. The Chair will be keen to move on to the main business at 6 o’clock, or very close thereto, so if people have questions in mind, will they think about how they can shave them?

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s statement. Will he outline what his views are for community pharmacy as part of the strategy of prevention?

[Matt Hancock]

Community pharmacies have a hugely important role to play in keeping people out of hospital and in supporting GP surgeries by doing more. Here, it is the French model that I look to for inspiration, but we should look all across the world to improve our health service.

Organ Donation (Deemed Consent) Bill

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Committee Debate: 1st sitting: House of Commons
Wednesday 12th September 2018 Public Bill Committees

[Julie Elliott (Sunderland Central) (Lab)]

I thank you Mr Wilson, as well as my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West, who introduced this private Member’s Bill, and I take pleasure in the cross-party support for the Bill.

There is no doubt that the Bill will make more organs available for transplant, which, as many people here know, is a very personal issue to me, as my daughter is on the kidney transplant list. Only if more organs are made available can lives be both changed and saved. We must always remember those who donate their family members’ organs, because that is such an act of selflessness. Having spoken to many donor families, seeing that lives are saved or improved by doing that hopefully gives them some comfort in what must be the most horrific of circumstances.

I draw the Committee’s attention to a couple of important points. For the Bill to work, there must be an appropriate public information exercise, there must be education, and there must be a triggering of conversation in families, workplaces and schools, about the issue of transplantation. It is a very real issue that can affect anybody, in any walk of life, at any time. Only by talking about the issue openly do people gain a real understanding of what others want and realise that there is nothing to be frightened of in transplantation. Adequate time and resources must be given to the health service and other bodies for the Bill to be implemented properly and successfully—it is important for all concerned that that happens.

I will not go on any longer because there is cross-party agreement. It is very positive when a measure passes through the House and there is genuine cross-party agreement for improving the quality of lives and, literally, making the difference between life and death of people in this country.

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Wilson. In my brief remarks, I will first pay tribute to the hon. Member for Coventry North West, to the Minister, and to the Government and all parties for working together in this way, as has been described by many Members on both sides of the Committee.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Tuesday 24th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

Thank you for calling me, Mr Speaker; news of my death has been greatly exaggerated, Sir.

I thank the Minister for her previous reply. She will be aware that there is considerable concern about certain images on social media, particularly those relating to self-harming, and the effect they have on young people’s mental health. Will she set out the Government’s response in dealing with this issue?

[Mr Speaker]

I know the hon. Gentleman, who has returned to the Chamber in rude health, is in fact deeply grateful to me for my generosity in accommodating him, notwithstanding his rather eccentric disappearance, and the fact that he did not mention it was a mere oversight.

Health and Social Care (National Data Guardian) Bill

Bim Afolami Excerpts

3rd reading: House of Commons & Report stage: House of Commons
Friday 6th July 2018 Commons Chamber

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

As many Members have said, this is the 70th anniversary week of the NHS, and there is no better time to talk about this Bill. I will focus in my brief speech on three areas.

The first is that personal medical data about ourselves and our families is, to many of us, the most important thing we have. It is personal and emotional information, which if stolen would be incredibly valuable to criminals or nefarious organisations that may wish to use it for their own purposes. It is therefore critically important that by establishing this post in statute we strengthen the security of that personal information and data that we all cherish so much.

Connected with that is the question of trust: trust from our constituents—the people of this country—that their data will be handled securely in a world where online crime and other dangers to that data are proliferating far beyond what we could have imagined 10, 15 or 20 years ago. Establishing the post in statute will significantly improve the trust individuals have in the system and in the protection of their own personal data.

Finally, there is the question of accountability. One of the difficult aspects of being a Member of Parliament is that we are often called to account for things we do not control, or indeed the Government do not control. This Bill sets out the accountability of the individual responsible for safeguarding individuals’ data. That accountability helps contribute to trust, and what better way to achieve that than by establishing the post in statute?

We heard from my hon. Friend the Member for Havant (Alan Mak) about the importance of technology in the NHS, and indeed in the world, today. The NHS’s data source—aided not just by the people of this country and their various ailments but by the structure of the NHS—is an incredibly valuable resource for improving the lives of people in this country, because of what we can do with that data in the context of technology. The Bill will help to strengthen that position.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Tuesday 8th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

It is absolutely our intention. We think it is beneficial for Brits and beneficial for Europeans. We are very confident that we will be able to negotiate reciprocal healthcare arrangements to protect those benefits, but our first preference would be a continuation of the current scheme.

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

Will the Minister explain how and when the community pharmacy sector will gain access to the pharmacy integration fund? Millions have been promised. When will it be delivered?

[Steve Brine]

The pharmacy integration fund is a great success. It needed to be ramped up and it is being ramped up. Pharmacists, working within general practice, are making a great difference to the multidisciplinary team within primary care.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Tuesday 20th March 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

As the hon. Gentleman will know, these figures cover England and Wales. He will also know that they do not take account of changes in population or changes in demography, so we use the age-standardised mortality rate, which, according to Public Health England, has remained broadly stable over recent years.

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

Does my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State recognise the strong business case for the merger between Luton and Dunstable University Hospital and Bedford Hospital in terms of delivering value for money for our local health economy?

[Stephen Barclay]

My hon. Friend has been assiduous, as have his neighbours, in lobbying the case for Luton and Dunstable and Bedford. He will be aware that the ongoing business case is being reviewed as part of that, but ultimately this is about the £3.9 billion of additional capital investment that the Government have funded. That is why these cases are being reviewed.

 Orkambi and Cystic Fibrosis

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Monday 19th March 2018 Westminster Hall

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Evans. It is also a pleasure to be in this debate. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Sutton and Cheam (Paul Scully). As has been said, the number of Members of Parliament here for a Westminster Hall debate is extraordinary, and shows how much Members and constituents care about this.

I will be brief because it is important that Members have a chance to make their contributions. Cystic fibrosis is the most common inherited genetic disease in the UK. We have already heard that Orkambi has been praised as being important and effective by NICE.

I am thinking about two of my constituents: Matthew Dixon-Dyer, who suffers from the disease himself, and Karen Murphy, whose son suffers from the disease. They urged me to speak in this debate. They did not just want me to urge the Minister to take charge of the negotiations with Vertex, or at least to press NHS England much harder to come to a resolution with Vertex. Nor was it to do with just cystic fibrosis or this drug. It is important that the cost-benefit analysis that NICE uses reflects chronic conditions, which drugs such as Orkambi deal with, more broadly, rather than just dealing with acute conditions, which it was typically designed for.

Like my hon. Friend the Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Julia Lopez), I ask the Government to build the greater cost to the NHS later into the cost-benefit analysis. As we have heard from many Members, individuals may have to be in hospital for weeks on end as a result of the reduction in lung capacity. Karen Murphy’s son was in hospital for 16 weeks. I do not know what the costs of that were.

[Mr George Howarth (Knowsley) (Lab)]

The hon. Gentleman is making a very powerful point. Does he agree that, while we need processes to evaluate new drugs, sometimes the system does not work, which is why we have Ministers and such debates?

[Bim Afolami]

Yes, sometimes systems do not work and, as I said, I believe that in this case the Minister should get involved, but we also need to look at the processes. Members of Parliament cannot come to the House and demand action for every single drug. We need to build in better processes for NICE so that when there is a drug such as Orkambi, which deals with a chronic condition and can make a significant difference to people’s lives, the Government, Members of Parliament, this country and our society can act in the right way.

[Mr Paul Sweeney (Glasgow North East) (Lab/Co-op)]

It is important to note that the average life expectancy for someone suffering from cystic fibrosis is just 28 years. That is why Orkambi is so critical, because it will help people to maintain life expectancy and a good quality of life in the prime of their life.

[Bim Afolami]

My constituent, Mr Dixon-Dyer, is in his early 30s. He and his wife have a baby on the way. That gave him such an impetus that he came to me, because he wants to be around for that child’s life. I want him to be around too.

I hope the Minister takes note of the strength of feeling, which as he will be aware is not typical for a Westminster Hall debate, and looks kindly on the proposal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Tuesday 6th February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Caroline Dinenage]

We recognise that there are pressures on our social care as the population ages. In the short term, we have of course made the extra £2 billion of funding available to local authorities; in the medium term, we need to make sure that best practice is observed across all local authorities and NHS trusts; and in the long term, we will be coming forward with a Green Paper on social care later this year.

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

4. What steps he is taking to broaden routes into nursing.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

The NHS needs more nurses, which is why we are making big changes for new entries into the profession, including the new nurse associate role and new nurse degree apprenticeships.

[Bim Afolami]

I am glad to hear that the Secretary of State values the degree apprenticeship as a way to provide further routes into nursing, but will he consider working with the Treasury and across the Government to increase the funding that educational establishments receive from the Institute for Apprenticeships for nursing courses, to further incentivise universities and colleges to offer more places on those courses?

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for his excellent question. It will strengthen my hand with the Department for Education, which decides what levels of funding are made available from the Institute for Apprenticeships. It has actually given us the highest level of funding, at £27,000, but we never say no to more.

Oral Answers to Questions

Bim Afolami Excerpts

Tuesday 14th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

It has been challenging to expand mental health services over the past seven years due to the financial pressure on the NHS, but we have succeeded. We have 4,300 more people working in mental health trusts and £1.4 billion more is being spent on mental health than three years ago. We have a plan—it is a good one—and we are going to ensure that it happens.

[Bim Afolami (Hitchin and Harpenden) (Con)]

I am sure that the Secretary of State will welcome the fact that cancer survival rates are at a record high, but will he explain how the Government are going to fund the latest technology, so that we can continue to stay ahead of this terrible disease?

[Mr Hunt]

I am grateful for my hon. Friend’s question. As he knows, 150 more people are starting cancer treatment every single day compared with 2010, which is why there are 7,000 people alive today who would not have been if we had the cancer survival rates of five years ago. However, we are still behind western European averages, and we want to do something about that. A big investment in capital equipment for cancer is therefore something that we are prioritising.