Care Quality Commission (Morecambe Bay Hospitals)

David Morris Excerpts

Wednesday 19th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I can reassure the right hon. Gentleman that neither the chairman of the CQC nor I have any interest whatsoever in keeping these names secret. He did receive legal advice telling him that he could not publish them, but I will go back to him with what the right hon. Gentleman says. I know that the CQC chairman would like to be as transparent as possible. The choice he had, on the basis of the legal advice, was either not to publish the report or to publish it without the names. I think he took the right decision, given the advice he had, but I will ask him to consider what the right hon. Gentleman says.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

It is appalling what has come out in the press today and it is appalling what has been suppressed in the past. It is alleged by Lady Barbara Young, a former CQC chair, that under the previous Labour Government she was leant on by Labour Ministers not to criticise the NHS under their tenure. In her Mid Staffs inquiry evidence she stated:

“There was huge government pressure, because the government hated the idea that…a regulator would criticise it”.

She also alleges that the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham), the then Health Secretary in the last Labour Government, needs to answer these very serious allegations, especially given what has happened in my local NHS trust.

[Mr Hunt]

That is the big culture change we need to see; we need to see Governments who are prepared, in all circumstances, however difficult and however politically inconvenient it is, to recognise that when there are safety issues, when there are terrible failures in care and compassion, we need to support the people who want to speak up, because if we do not do that, we will never root out these problems.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 16th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

I think we will take that as a meeting.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

17. Whether there are plans to close the accident and emergency department at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter)]

I would like to reassure my hon. Friend that there are no plans and never have been any plans to close the accident and emergency department at Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

[David Morris]

I thank my hon. Friend for that robust answer. Does he agree that the local Labour party fabricated the scare story that the A and E department was going to close? It was never going to close, as he has just stated. Will he assist me in taking the local Labour party’s bogus petition offline?

[Dr Poulter]

My hon. Friend is right to highlight the fact that it is wrong of any political party—in this case, the Labour party—to focus on scaremongering when there is no basis in truth. At no point have there been plans to close Royal Lancaster Infirmary.

Accident and Emergency Departments

David Morris Excerpts

Thursday 7th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

Thank you for calling me, Mr Deputy Speaker. My constituents will be paying close attention to this debate.

For some weeks the press in my constituency has been awash with allegations about both maternity and accident and emergency services at our local NHS trust. What concerns me is not that the services will change, but the scare stories surrounding all this. I have received a letter from Jackie Daniels, the chief executive of the trust, confirming that it will not shut the A and E department at Royal Lancaster Infirmary. She wrote:

“‘The A and E at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary serves the population of Lancaster and surrounding areas and treats in the region of 50,000 people each year. Whilst it would be wrong of me to second guess the future, I personally find it hard to imagine Lancaster not having emergency services. Let me be clear, we do not have any plans to shut the Accident and Emergency department in Lancaster.

We are deeply concerned that these continual rumours are undermining confidence and frightening the public. We will continue to work with the public, staff and stakeholders to better understand the review of services to help allay these concerns.”

So the chief executive of the trust has said that not only has she no plans to close the A and E, but she cannot even imagine a scenario in which anyone would close it, not least because it serves 50,000 people a year.

[Siobhain McDonagh (Mitcham and Morden) (Lab)]

May I urge the hon. Gentleman to be careful about this? Most Labour Members face closures of A and E departments that serve twice that number of people.

[David Morris]

I shall come to that in my speech.

A concerted Labour campaign has been mounted by local party members who actually work in the NHS to make people believe that the A and E department is likely to close. The campaign involves press briefings, an online petition, a Facebook group, and even people walking around the centre of Morecambe with clipboards inviting people to join it. I want the e-petition to be removed from Directgov, and I have written to the Cabinet Secretary asking him to intervene. We cannot allow a dishonest campaign to be fought on Directgov e-petition platforms. If the A and E department is not under threat, it must be concluded that people are being frightened for the purpose of political advantage, which, in my view, is morally wrong.

Perhaps it is time to admit the truth: the trust is getting better under the present Government. A new and better management was introduced by the former Secretary of State. Only a few weeks ago, the Under-Secretary of State for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter) opened a new minor injuries unit in my constituency. A new health centre in Heysham, costing £20 million, was opened last year, and four new wards have just opened at Lancaster hospital. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend—for he is my hon. Friend outside the Chamber—the Member for Barrow and Furness (John Woodcock) for ensuring that maternity services in Barrow remained secure.

All that was paid for by a 2.8% increase in funding for the NHS under the present Government. This debate is part of a national campaign to scare people into believing that the NHS will be deconstructed.

[Margaret Hodge]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[David Morris]

I will later.

This, I believe, started with a disingenuous story in Corby, which was used to great effect. It has now become the scare story in Lewisham and now, surprise, surprise, the scare story in Lancaster and Morecambe. Those A and Es are not under threat. They are not closing down. The public will see through this Labour campaign to start a fire and then claim to put it out, saving us all.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Morris]

Does my hon. Friend agree that this issue is above party politics?

[Patrick Mercer]

I totally agree. I would never dream of being critical of my hon. Friend, but I do think that this is such an emotive subject that we can be distracted from the realities by the fears these proposals raise.

I hope that I will speak for everybody who lives in semi-rural and remote areas—as I do, living north of Newark—and who depends on hospitals such as Newark. Newark no longer has an A and E. We, like many other parts of the country, are now at least 20 miles away from our nearest A and Es. Our nearest ones are at Lincoln County, Grantham or—extraordinarily and disgracefully—King’s Mill, which is part of the same private finance initiative with which Newark finds itself lumbered.

Newark sits on the A1 and is adjacent to the M1, and it also sits on the crucial and very busy east coast main line railway. The sorts of incidents the hon. Member for Barrow and Furness described in the nuclear industry could also arise on the road and rail networks in and around Newark, yet Newark has no A and E, in common with many towns of the same size in similar areas.

I do not understand why there has been such confusion over my A and E, and I ask the Minister to explain. If this has happened in Newark, I have no doubt that it happens elsewhere, and that it will continue to do so. Let me explain. When I returned to my home town of Newark in 1999, we had a department called “A and E.” Only subsequently did I find out that it was not an A and E at all; it was a sort of minor injuries unit with a big notice above the door saying “A and E.” Nobody had had the political courage to say, “Take that notice down.” That was nothing to do with the Labour Government or the coalition that subsequently came to power; it was to do with the staff in charge of the local NHS, who eventually grasped the nettle and said, “No, this is no longer an A and E.” The fuss caused was disproportionate.

For 10 years, nobody had had the courage to say, “This is not right; we are lying to the people of Newark.” Why was this allowed to happen? The Minister is a fellow Nottinghamshire Member of Parliament, so she knows about what happened at Newark, but I do not understand how A and Es can continue to function like this, and how the protocols of the ambulance crews that service A and Es can cope.

[Patrick Mercer]

My hon. Friend has clearly been reading my notes, as that is exactly the point I am going to make. If we look at the composition of the anti-tank platoon of the 1st Battalion, The Royal Anglian Regiment and the composition of the anti-tank platoon of the 3rd Battalion, The Parachute Regiment—I know that you, too, think a lot about these matters, Mr Deputy Speaker —we will see that they are identical; they have the same weapons, the same troops, the same kit and so forth. There is no difference between them. Why, therefore, do we have this byzantine set of organisations in our NHS, so that an A and E can be a sort of an A and E, perhaps, or not an A and E at all, or an MIU-plus—or have a notice outside its door that is wholly misleading?

Why do ambulance services not have a standard set of operating procedures? Why do they call them protocols? Why do protocols vary? Why are not the staff correctly, and centrally, trained to understand what an A and E delivers, so they can know when they arrive at a hospital that the casualty they are carrying will receive the sort of treatment an A and E should deliver? More to the point, why are those ambulance crews not in a position to understand that, perhaps, town X’s A and E—or MIU, or whatever—cannot cope with a certain sort of injury? As a result of all this confusion, we waste time, resources and lives. This is not the province of party politics. Party politics is not worth a damn when it comes to the lives of our constituents.

I recognise, and most people recognise—even the nay-sayers, the negatives, the people who still want a policeman in every village and the return of the home guard, and even those in Newark who do not understand that we are not going to have a general hospital there—that we are never going to have A and Es, in all their glory, returned to towns the size of Newark. However, despite asking for commonality, I ask the Minister to recognise that there has to be flexibility, although I appreciate that that sits uncomfortably with my last point. The Minister understands the country and its dreadful road systems. May we please take a flexible view of these things? Could clinical cases be assisted in places such as Newark, so that minor injury units can indeed provide other critical services than those they currently provide? We do not need to be hidebound by these things, but we do need to be regulated. We do not need to be narrow-minded, but we do need to understand that different communities have different needs, and that roads in particular impose different travelling times and different strains on ambulance services across the country.

A great deal of noise and fuss is made all the time about the A and E, the critical services and the minor injuries unit in Newark, but that is only a fraction of what our hospitals do. It was widely bruited about in Newark until recently that the hospital was going to close, and yet on Monday I helped to open a new ward there. It is not a critical ward, and it has nothing to do with the minor injuries unit or the A and E; none the less, it is an exceedingly important part of the hospital, nine-tenths of which does not deal with critical matters.

[David Morris]

Does my hon. Friend agree with me that the NHS is actually getting better under this Government?

[Patrick Mercer]

Yes, I do. In my own town, things have improved but, by golly, there is a long way to go before we get to where we need to be. There is one thing that I do not agree with my hon. Friend about. The East Midlands Ambulance Service NHS Trust has had the courage to say that it is not performing properly. I appreciate that it is not part of the NHS trust which forms part of Newark hospital. But patently, A and Es, minor injury units—whatever we are going to call them— cannot work effectively unless the communications between each are properly formulated, properly regulated and properly led.

University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust

David Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 5th February 2013 Westminster Hall

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

I thank you for calling me in this debate, Mr Howarth, as it is one that will be closely watched in my constituency. For some weeks, the local press has been awash with allegations about both maternity and accident and emergency services at our NHS trust. I am concerned not about services changing but about the scare stories surrounding the matter. I have a letter from the chief executive of the trust that confirms that it will not shut the A and E at Royal Lancaster infirmary. The Minister also has this letter, but I will quote from it:

“The A and E at the Royal Lancaster Infirmary serves the population of Lancaster and surrounding areas and treats in the region of 50,000 people each year. Whilst it would be wrong of me to second guess the future, I personally find it hard to imagine Lancaster not having emergency services. Let me be clear, we do not have any plans to shut the Accident and Emergency department in Lancaster. We are deeply concerned that these continual rumours are undermining confidence and frightening the public. We will continue to work with the public, staff and stakeholders to better understand the review of services to help allay these concerns.”

Jackie Daniel, the CEO of the trust, is saying there that not only does she have no plans to close the A and E, but she cannot even imagine a scenario in which anyone would close it, not least because it serves 50,000 people a year.

However, a concerted Labour campaign has been mounted by local party members who actually work in the NHS to make people believe that the A and E is likely to close. The campaign involves press briefings, an online petition, a Facebook group and even people walking round the centre of Morecambe with clipboards inviting people to join. I want the e-petition removed from Directgov and have written to the Cabinet Secretary to ask for him to intervene. We cannot have this dishonest campaign fought through the Directgov e-petition platform. If the A and E is not under threat, it must be concluded that Labour is frightening people for its own political advantage, which is morally wrong.

It is perhaps time to admit the truth: the trust is getting better under this Government. A new and better management was brought in by the previous Secretary of State for Health. A new minor injuries unit was opened in my constituency by the Minister only a few weeks ago. A new health centre in Heysham, costing £20 million, was opened last year. We have four new wards just opened. All of that was paid for by the 2.8% increase in funding for the NHS.

[Mr George Howarth (in the Chair)]

Order. I call the Minister.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 15th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

It is my job, and that is why the Government have protected the NHS budget. The hon. Gentleman’s Front-Bench team, on the other hand, want to cut it in real terms. He has to think carefully before he starts talking about all these so-called cuts, given that his shadow Health spokesman wants to cut the NHS budget in real terms. [Interruption.] That is what he said last December. I agree with the Care Quality Commission that it is totally unacceptable for hospitals to have unsafe staffing levels. The commission also said, however, that budgets and financial issues were not an excuse, because those budget pressures existed throughout the NHS and many hospitals were able to deliver excellent care despite them.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

7. What steps he is taking to improve the survival rates of cancer, stroke and heart disease patients.

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

Our cancer strategy set out the ambition to save 5,000 lives by 2014-15 through earlier diagnosis, cancer screening and improved access to treatment. We are working on an outcomes strategy for cardiovascular disease.

[David Morris]

Will my right hon. Friend tell the House how many patients have benefited from the cancer drugs fund to date?

Liquid Nitrogen Drinks

David Morris Excerpts

Friday 30th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

I thank you, Mr Deputy Speaker, for giving me the opportunity to speak on the important issue of banning liquid nitrogen as an ingredient in cocktails and other drinks. It is important from the outset that I make it clear that I do not propose to prevent the usage of liquid nitrogen in food preparation and production. In my view, using liquid nitrogen to chill foods and drinks is acceptable, but to put it in drinks is extremely dangerous and must be stopped, not least because nitrogen boils at minus 196° centigrade, making it very dangerous in liquid form. The idea that someone could drink a cocktail that contains an ingredient that is minus 196° centigrade is obviously dangerous and must stop.

As a little background, I should say that this issue first came to my attention as a result of the serious injuries sustained by Gaby Scanlon from Heysham in my constituency. On her 18th birthday she went to a bar in Lancaster and drank two “nitro Jagermeister” cocktails costing £8.95. These drinks look very appealing because the nitrogen boils in the glass and creates a smoke effect. I can understand fully why Miss Scanlon wanted to try these drinks and I believe her actions on the night were those of a normal 18 year old. When she bought the drinks, she had a reasonable assumption that something she bought in a licensed bar was safe to drink. Sadly, however, the complete opposite proved to be true. What followed is really horrific. The liquid nitrogen froze her stomach and, as it boiled her stomach, it began to rupture, leaving her in the sort of agony that is hard to imagine. Clinicians at the Royal Lancaster infirmary took the decision to remove her stomach in emergency surgery. They say that she may have died without this procedure.

This is the only case of serious injury of this kind that has been reported in the media across the world, and to think that it happened here in the UK is shocking. We must take action before this problem becomes more widespread. As we know, there are lots of laws and regulations on the food and drink we consume, and it is illegal to serve anything that is injurious to health, but how many people know of the dangers of liquid nitrogen used in this fashion? Gaby Scanlon did not know, and, had I been in that bar at the time, I would not have known. Bars and restaurants across the country do not know either, yet they serve this cocktail daily.

Tonight, young people across the country will be served these drinks by staff at bars that do not know the dangers. No one believes that the bar that served Gaby Scanlon wanted to hurt her; it simply did not know the dangers. That lack of knowledge cannot continue. I appreciate the work of the Food Standards Agency in issuing advice to environmental health officers, but in response 80% of EHOs have said that there must be an outright ban on liquid nitrogen being used in this fashion and that it should not be used as an ingredient under any circumstances. I agree with them.

I do not support greater vigilance; I support an outright ban. In consultation with the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, the Department of Health can issue an emergency control order banning the use of any ingredient. It happens regularly when an ingredient is found to be unsafe but still in widespread use. The issuing of these orders is comparatively easy and does not require any sort of primary legislation, because the powers already exist. I hope that the Minister will update the House on what discussions have taken place between DEFRA and the Department for Health, and that he will say whether any other cases of this sort have been reported. Furthermore, what discussions has his Department had with relevant professionals and local authorities?

The last thing I want to do is play the blame game. Too few people know about the dangers of liquid nitrogen drinks, but that is starting to change. I am delighted that this debate has been covered by Radio 1’s “Newsbeat”, listeners to which are in the age group most at risk. I hope that coverage of this debate will warn even more young people of the dangers of these drinks. My message to all young people is that liquid nitrogen drinks are not worth the risk.

I call on Health Ministers to support an outright ban on the use of liquid nitrogen as an ingredient. If we take this opportunity now, we will prevent other young people from going through the shock, pain and disruption that Gaby Scanlon did. When someone walks into a bar or restaurant in this country, they have a right to know that what is being served is safe, and the House has a duty to enforce that right.

In closing, I want to wish Miss Scanlon well. She is slowly but surely returning to health, and the whole House will want to offer its good wishes to her and her family.

Manufacturing

David Morris Excerpts

Thursday 24th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

I serve on the Science and Technology Committee and we recently examined how the Germans fund their new technology infrastructure. They have the Fraunhofer institutes, which have been running for more than 100 years. We are now trying to emulate that through the Turing centres. German manufacturing is good, but ours could be equally good, if not better.

[Mr Bailey]

That issue was recognised by the previous Government, and measures were being put in place to replicate that approach in the context of the British industrial scene. The current Government are, to their credit, taking that up.

Bank lending is a hugely significant issue for small and medium-sized enterprises in my constituency and nationally. The Merlin targets are not being met. That, combined with low consumer confidence and low business expansion expectations on the basis of the domestic market, means that companies are not applying for loans because they do not feel positive about future market opportunities and because they are wary of the banks making their credit lines even more difficult than they already are. That is having a stultifying effect on the ability of small businesses to expand.

Quantitative easing in order to address that issue may, indeed, keep interest rates low, but I have yet to meet a bank that knows how that will help SMEs directly, and I have yet to meet a business that knows how it would make any difference to its relationship with its local bank. Although lower interest rates may be welcome in general, that will not necessarily feed through to more investment in small businesses. I am concerned that the effect low interest rates are having on pension fund incomes could lead to some manufacturing businesses having to pay more into their pension funds, thereby diverting money from other areas in order to sustain their pension levels. This could be a counter-productive step, therefore.

There is now a lack of provision in the crucial area of small grants and loans for small businesses that want to expand to take the market opportunities that will be available to them. The regional development agencies will not be reintroduced—that is a debate for another day—but they did provide small loans to businesses that wanted to expand. Those loans are gone now, and they are not being replaced by the banks. The regional growth fund is not yet delivering for small businesses. If we are to expand the capacity of manufacturing SMEs in the time that they have available to make an impact on employment, that vacuum needs to be filled. Either local enterprise partnerships must be given more powers or the RGF needs quicker and more localised means of distributing money.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

I am delighted to be called to speak in the debate, not only to highlight the needs of my constituents and the manufacturing industry, but to support my room-mate and hon. Friend—he is not right hon. yet, but headed that way—the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman). I like to think that I have taught him everything he knows.

My constituency is heavily reliant on energy production and manufacturing. Like many north Lancashire constituencies, we make high-spec components for clients in the energy, defence and constructions industries. When we watch programmes on television about the amazing engineering feats involved in BAE Systems, in nuclear submarines at Barrow-in-Furness and in the nuclear power station at Heysham, in all likelihood the vital components we see will have been made or designed in my constituency. North Lancashire has a skills base that allows it to compete favourably with areas that have low labour costs. Manufacturers in China and India, for example, are unable to offer their products with a 10-year guarantee because they are often not of the same quality. The situation is similar to that of BMW in Germany: it has never produced the cheapest cars but is popular because of its build quality and reliability. Our manufacturing sector is struggling not as a result of a lack of orders, but because of the perennial problem of recent years: lack of money.

Any manufacturer of high-quality components needs to invest large sums in three keys areas: machinery, IT packages and training. It is worth going through each in turn. On machinery, I was talking recently to a manufacturer in my constituency who used to import 5,000 plumbing hoses a year. The products were no cheaper to order from China than they were in UK, but placing an order gave 30 days’ credit and the outlay is lower than buying a machine. It took the company several years to save enough money to buy the machine needed to make the hoses, but once it did it began making 7,000 a year. Obviously, British workers were employed to operate the machine, cutting unemployment in the constituency. Whatever we do in this difficult economic period, we must find a way of ensuring that businesses are able to access money and buy vital machinery.

On IT packages, the modern computer developed from an idea that came out of Bletchley Park during the second world war. We have always been world leaders in IT, but as computer packages have become more sophisticated the costs have risen. Although the packages save staff time and improve productivity, they also require capital outlay. I have heard plenty of examples of manufacturers being unable to turn ideas into viable products because the IT package required is just too expensive. I am not complaining about IT costs per se, as the people who design the products deserve to be properly paid. My complaint is once again that banks and the old regional development agencies were so poor at supporting businesses with the capital they needed to buy the products in the first place.

On training, I suppose a purist accountant would not view training as capital expenditure, but manufacturers are often required to pay for expensive training before a product is ever made. In practical terms, that means that lack of credit and poorly administered grants have an impact. Training for some IT packages can cost £1,500 per member of staff. When a company needs large numbers of staff to be trained, it is easy to see how costs soon mount up.

I have laid out three problems, but what are the solutions? First, we must accept that for small and medium-sized enterprises the regional development agencies simply did not work. They were too unresponsive and too focused on larger businesses. Many companies that I have spoken with got the impression, rightly or wrongly, that RDAs would step in only if a product would fail without them. That makes sense on paper, but in reality it is not about a product falling; it is about how quickly it can be brought to market and where it is made. Grants were not always available for speculative investments such as the machinery, IT packages and training I have mentioned. Things need to change and enterprise zones are a step in the right direction.

I know everyone will agree that we also need to get credit moving. I have now accepted that the big six banks cannot or will not help. We need greater diversity in our banking sector, so that the big banks are forced to serve business better. We need a regulatory environment that encourages more banks to enter the UK market and encourages more British companies to establish banks.

“Made in Britain” is still a mark of quality throughout the world, and our products still command a premium that makes our manufacturing viable. From the new plumbing system at Sidra hospital in Qatar to the A380 super-jumbo jet, British manufacturing is a vibrant part of our economy. Contrary to popular myth, we are still the world’s seventh largest manufacturer, but without solutions to the capital outlay problem we will never reach our full potential. We must give our companies the money that they need, because it is vital to invest in the future and in manufacturing. They maintain our skills base and are vital to the diversity of the British economy.

We should take this debate forward and act upon it. I again thank everyone for taking part in it, and my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham for bringing it forward in the first place.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I have been very clear and published all the cost-benefit and risk information relating to the modernisation of the NHS, and the impact assessment was published when the legislation was presented to the House of Lords.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

The Care Quality Commission and Monitor are looking into the affairs of the University Hospitals of Morecambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust. Will my right hon. Friend assure my constituents that whatever the findings, the Government will act upon them quickly?

NHS Future Forum

David Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 14th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

With respect, the hon. Gentleman misses the point entirely. Without the legislation we could not transfer out of the hands of a managerial top-down bureaucracy into the hands of clinicians and local people, but he is right—it is not just the localisation of decision making. There is also in the NHS a nationally funded service with an expectation of national standards, and many services that require high levels of national consistency in commissioning. There is a job for the national commissioning board, which we will establish. That in itself will inject a considerable level of consistency in standards and quality, and considerable efficiency in commissioning some services.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

I congratulate the Secretary of State on his reforms. I know how hard he has worked and conducted consultation across the political spectrum. That should be respected by the Opposition. The reforms empower our medical practitioners—doctors and nurses—and in doing so, as I am sure he would agree, will stop the litigation culture that has galloped away over the past 13 years under the previous Government.

[Mr Lansley]

I understand the point that my hon. Friend is making. We need—not least in a further emphasis on safety and some of the other measures that we as a Government, including my colleagues at the Ministry of Justice, have said we would bring forward—to try to offset a rising tide of litigation and cost associated with clinical negligence cases in the NHS. My hon. Friend is kind to me about working hard. I never imagined I would not do so, but if I have worked hard over the past eight weeks, it is nothing compared to the leaders of the NHS Future Forum who, in the space of just eight weeks, produced excellent work which will be of enduring significance.

Oral Answers to Questions

David Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 26th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I can tell the hon. Gentleman that waiting times in the NHS are stable. The average waiting time for patients who are admitted to hospital is nine weeks, and the average waiting time for out-patients is three and a half weeks. I think that people in the NHS might reasonably say that it is not fair to cite February 2011, when patients waiting for elective operations could not be admitted because critical care beds were occupied in the immediate wake of a severe winter and the largest flu outbreak since 1999.

[David Morris (Morecambe and Lunesdale) (Con)]

T3. According to recent press reports, hospitals have used money earmarked for front-line NHS services to pay salaries to trade union officials. Does my right hon. Friend consider it acceptable to spend taxpayers’ money on paying union hatchet people, and will he order an investigation?

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr Simon Burns)]

The Government consider it right for NHS staff to have access to trade union representatives at work, but that should not be abused. Arrangements for reimbursing staff for trade union activities should be agreed locally between trusts and unions. There are no current plans to review union facility time.