Health and Social Care (Re-committed) Bill

David Tredinnick Excerpts

Wednesday 7th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Owen Smith]

I accept that there are obviously different needs and that there is a good case for a needs-based assessment model being used by PCTs in the current situation or by CCGs. Indeed, one of the amendments tabled by Liberal Democrat Members on a needs-based assessment is excellent and I wish that we had tabled it. However, the crucial difference, which I alluded to earlier, is that previously the Secretary of State has had a direct duty under section 3 of the National Health Service Act 2006 to provide and secure a whole range of relevant and necessary pieces of the health ecosystem, such as hospitals, within a given area. Under the Bill, that duty will pass to clinical commissioning groups. That is a further crucial removal of responsibility and accountability from the Secretary of State and transference of them to CCGs.

Under the aegis of the Bill, many CCGs may well plan well for their local population, and perhaps better than primary care trusts, but what if they do not? What if they get it wrong and determine for clinical reasons—or, dare I say it, because in this new world they are sitting cheek by jowl in the boardroom with commercial players who have a stake and a skin in the game financially—that they no longer feel it is “reasonable”, as the Bill puts it, to provide certain services? I think that is perfectly foreseeable.

We already know that because of the cost pressures that PCTs are under, they are having to make difficult decisions about which services they will provide and which they will not. They have always had to do that. It is just possible that CCGs will make duff decisions with which local residents disagree. As we heard earlier from my hon. Friends on the Back Benches, they will not be able to be held to account in the way that the Secretary of State, and eventually PCTs through the Secretary of State, can currently be. Those changes are critical, and I suggest that the Minister reflects on them.

Another crucial change to the Bill that we would like to be brought about is in respect of the costs of bureaucracy. We are changing from 150 PCTs to more than 250 clinical commissioning groups and counting. The latter are smaller and less strategic, and certainly less experienced in commissioning, than PCTs or strategic health authorities, and they are arguably too small to compete equitably with very large and financially powerful foundation trusts. That is a real risk. Crucially, they will also increase transaction costs, bureaucracy and administration costs.

That is why, in new clause 11, we have decided to ask the Government to put their money where their mouth is. The Minister asked earlier why we had chosen an “arbitrary” figure of 45% for a cap on the volume of expenditure on administration by CCGs. The answer is simple: it was the number that the Secretary of State came up with. He said that that was how many percentage points he was going to trim off the administration and bureaucracy costs of the NHS. He boasted that he could deliver 45% savings, so we are calling on him today to put his money where his mouth is and legislate for that. Let us measure him against that, because there is not going to be much else that we can hold him accountable for.

We have tabled new clause 10, on waiting times, because targets and standards absolutely matter in the NHS. No matter what the Government keep telling the public, we still believe in clinical targets, including some that the Government would denigrate as “bureaucratic” or “administrative” targets. In new clause 10, we ask the Government to take the power to set transparent regulations relating to waiting times. Waiting times are going up under this Government. There have been 400,000 people with long waits since the Tories came to power. The trajectory and the sense of history repeating itself are depressingly clear to me and my hon. Friends.

[David Tredinnick (Bosworth) (Con)]

I think the hon. Gentleman might inadvertently have misled the House. He said that waiting lists were going up in the NHS. My recollection is that they are going up in Wales. He is shadow Wales Minister, I think.

[Owen Smith]

I was waiting for that intervention and looking forward to it. I was slightly concerned, when the hon. Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich intervened and failed to mention the fair and beautiful country of Wales, that I was not going to get the opportunity to put the record straight. I hate to tell the hon. Member for Bosworth (David Tredinnick) this, but he is wrong. Waiting lists in Wales are coming down. We have been hitting 95% of our target week in, week out, month in, month out since September 2009.

--- Later in debate ---

[David Tredinnick]

I am most grateful for being called to speak and for the opportunity to follow my colleague on the Health Committee, the hon. Member for Walsall South (Valerie Vaz), and my hon. Friend the Member for Hexham (Guy Opperman), and to say how pleased I am to see my hon. Friend in his place. I know from experience—not personal experience—just how tough that operation can be, so many congratulations to him on his recovery.

I want to make a short speech on just one issue—patient choice, which is one of the most important, if not the most important, aspects of the Bill—and to challenge my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State on one or two points. Chapter A1 13H sets out the duty that the board has, in the exercise of its functions, to

“promote the involvement of patients, and their carers and representatives…in decisions about the provision of health services to…patients.”

That patient choice depends on clinical commissioning, the subject of the amendments before us, and that in itself hangs on the “any qualified provider” policy, modified recently from “any willing provider”. There I have some concerns.

The TUC brief summed up “any qualified provider” very well:

“Under AQP, patients will be able to choose which provider to use for their treatment, from a list of approved providers (private, public or voluntary sector) who perform the service in exchange for a locally or nationally set tariff.”

Where I have a slight problem is that although the categories of treatment that can be employed, certainly in the transitional year 2012-13, have been set out in the operational guidance, I think there is a strong case for the guidance to be in the Bill itself.

However, I am very pleased to see at the top of the list musculoskeletal services for back and neck pain, and I presume, although it is not set out, that that means greater use of osteopathy and chiropractic, both regulated by Acts of Parliament, in 1993 and 1994. I had the honour to serve on the Committees considering those Bills. As the public are to have greater choice, we must look at providing that choice, and they will be asking for those services. They will also want acupuncture for musculoskeletal problems. Acupuncture has been approved by NICE and there are now NICE guidelines supporting acupuncture for use in these services. I would like my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State to consider at some point making a more positive, more specific commitment to the use of those services in the provision for patient choice.

There is a strong case for the “any qualified provider” policy to be set out in the Bill too, although it is set out in the operational guidance. The problem that may occur is in the qualification process. I have no problem with its asking for safe, good-quality care or with the governing principle of qualification being that practitioners be registered with the Care Quality Commission and Monitor, but what about those therapies that do not have those badges in their passport? What about traditional Chinese medicine, which is about to be regulated by the Health Professions Council? May we have a specific assurance that its practitioners can be part of this patient system? Traditional Chinese medicine and acupuncture have increased in popularity dramatically—Chinese practitioners may now be found in any town in the country.

I suggest to my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State that other therapies should be included in the list. He has produced a second list of services to be introduced in 2013-14, which includes community chemotherapy and home chemotherapy. If we are to offer patients choice on those chemotherapy services, we really ought to consider those who can support people who are exhausted after chemotherapy and radiotherapy. I am thinking of not only those who practise traditional Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture, but the healing fraternity and those who use therapeutic touch, many of whom now work in NHS hospitals to great effect.

I should also like to refer to homeopathic medicine, which I have discussed when you have been in the Chair before, Madam Deputy Speaker. I think I am right in saying that your constituency is not far from the Bristol homeopathic hospital, so perhaps you will not call me to order on this, especially as I am trying to stay in order. Many people use homeopathy every day to cure simple ailments, because it is cheap, easy to understand and very effective. Even if there are not umpteen double-blind placebo-controlled trials, there is a wealth of evidence that it works. I would draw my right hon. Friend’s attention to the fact that the Royal London hospital for integrated medicine, which used to be called the Royal London homeopathic hospital, has the highest patient satisfaction rating of all hospitals in the United Kingdom.

There is a case for including in the Bill clearer direction about the services that will become available. I ask my right hon. Friend to smile on those other disciplines that do not have statutory regulation but perhaps have robust non-statutory, voluntary regulation, such as acupuncture, and ensure that when patients go to their doctors and say, “Doctor, this is what we’ve used; this is what we really want,” they will not be turned away.

[Joan Walley (Stoke-on-Trent North) (Lab)]

Following the hon. Member for Bosworth (David Tredinnick) illustrates the problems that we have with the Bill: even at this stage, specific details need to be discussed and have a case made for them, so that the future of NHS provision can be fully taken on board. At the same time, because of how the Bill has been handled—we have had a re-committal—we have a political debate.

The debate on this specific group of amendments is taking place on two levels. I certainly want to ensure that the true principles of the NHS and its founding fathers, such as Nye Bevan, are followed in future provision. We need that political debate to ensure that the NHS is politically accountable. We have almost lost that opportunity, because we are in this mess, with all this uncertainty and not knowing how the Bill will shape up and go forward. We risk losing the whole of the NHS altogether.

Many people who are part of the medical profession and others who are concerned about their own future health care have contacted me, because they want the Government to be in control and the Secretary of State to have a duty to procure and provide services. This is a political debate, as much as anything else, but it is difficult to have that political debate within the confines of the amendments, although they are central to that debate.