Future of Health and Care

Derek Twigg Excerpts

Thursday 11th February 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

With an ask like that, it is hard to say anything other than yes, enthusiastically. I am keen to work with my hon. Friend, who is such an incredible voice for the Isle of Wight. The services on the Isle of Wight, by its island nature, are more closely aligned together than in many other parts of the country, but nevertheless suffer from some of the bureaucratic silo requirements in current legislation. I hope that these proposals will be received enthusiastically by all those involved in the provision of health, social care and public health on the Isle of Wight because they will remove the legislative barriers to closer integration and allow them to continue in the direction in which I know they are enthusiastically working with my hon. Friend’s support.

[Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab) [V]]

In the middle of a pandemic, when its implications for future healthcare are still not fully understood and when NHS staff are exhausted, with no respite on the horizon, there are real concerns that the Secretary of State is embarking on this reorganisation now. So how will these plans specifically address the lengthening backlog in cancer treatments in Halton and the north-west? How will replacing local decision making with large sub-regional health bodies allow greater local accountability and encourage local innovation?

[Matt Hancock]

The devolution of decision making to integrated care systems will help to join up care and deliver it more effectively. That is one reason why these proposals have been received so enthusiastically by the NHS itself and by NHS colleagues, including from local government, not least because the proposals originated from proposals from the NHS. I look forward to working with the hon. Gentleman and suggest that he works with his local NHS to make sure that this legislation goes through in the most high-quality way possible and that we have a high-quality debate on it, so that it can serve his constituents in exactly the way he sets out.