Oral Answers to Questions

Diane Abbott Excerpts

Tuesday 5th July 2016 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

The Government are always interested in anything that can be proven to be cost-effective and efficacious.

[Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab)]

Millions of people around the world are dying annually from resistant infections. In the light of that and the positive correlation between antibiotic resistance rates and antibiotic consumption, urgent action needs to be taken. What steps and cross-departmental work is the Minister taking to address the findings of the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance and to reduce the unnecessary use of antimicrobials in agriculture?

[Jane Ellison]

There is consensus on the importance of this issue. It is worth highlighting the work that the Government are doing internationally, through the creation of the Fleming fund, in which we are investing £265 million, to help poorer countries to tackle drug resistance and to make sure that we have proper monitoring systems in place. Without a baseline to understand where we are even starting from, it is very difficult. We will respond more fully to all the issues highlighted by the hon. Lady when we respond formally to the O’Neill review, but it goes without saying that we are trying to take this work forward internationally and we are working towards further meetings at the United Nations this autumn.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

I enjoyed our many exchanges in this House, and it is a loss on our side as well that they will not continue. I would like to welcome the hon. Lady’s successor to her post, and I hope that I will have a chance to do so again when she asks a question later.

I agree with the hon. Member for Lewisham East (Heidi Alexander). Migrants, or the people who work in the NHS who come from different countries, make an extraordinary contribution. It is fair to say that the NHS would fall over without the incredible work that they do. It is also true that the British people voted to control migration on 23 June, and we have to accept that verdict. In terms of the NHS and social care system, I did not hear, and I have not heard in my time as Health Secretary, enormous amounts of worry about the pressure of migration on NHS services, because on the whole migrants tend to be younger and fitter people. While accepting the verdict of the British people and what they said on 23 June, the important reassurance that we now need to give is to the many people from outside the UK who make a fantastic contribution to the running of our health and care system.

[Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State may be aware that in the wake of the Brexit vote NHS commissioning bosses have delayed funding for vital medicines and services because of the fall in the value of the pound. One affected patient is Abi Longfellow, the teenager who won her battle for a wonder drug thanks to a campaign by the Sunday People. Abi currently spends 11 hours a day on a dialysis machine and was due to start on a drug that would give her a fighting chance with a kidney transplant. We were all aware that the pound might fall post referendum, so will the Secretary of State explain why no contingency plans were put in place and what he will do to ensure that, despite the Brexit vote, patients like Abi receive the lifesaving treatments and medicines that they need?

[Mr Hunt]

First, I welcome the hon. Lady to her position. She is the third shadow Health Secretary I have faced in less than a year, and I am beginning to worry that it may be something personal. I wish her well; she knows the brief extremely well and has campaigned on it a great deal in her long parliamentary career. I will look into the case she brought up. I would not want anyone to be deprived of vital lifesaving drugs because of exchange rate fluctuations. The whole British economy, including the NHS, will have to deal with the economic shock that we may now face as a result of the Brexit vote. But now that the decision has been taken by the British people we must look for the opportunities for the UK and the NHS, and not simply worry about the uncertainties, although there will be lots of things we have to deal with.

--- Later in debate ---

[Ben Gummer]

The Home Secretary said she was confident we could get a deal ensuring that they could stay, but we need a new Prime Minister able to start the negotiations caused by the decision of the British people on 23 June. I say in my capacity as a Health Minister— the House has heard from other Members, including the Secretary of State—that we have full confidence in the EU nationals working in the NHS and wish to praise their contribution, which makes the NHS a better organisation.

[Ms Diane Abbott (Hackney North and Stoke Newington) (Lab)]

The head of the NHS, Simon Stevens, has strongly defended the role of immigrants in the NHS, saying that there has never been a time in its 68-year history when the NHS has not

“relied on committed employees from around the world”.

One of these employees was my own mother, who migrated from Jamaica to the UK in the 1950s to be a pupil nurse. Workers from the EU and other countries are the backbone not just of the NHS but of our social care system, which is facing many challenges. Does the Minister agree that we should be thanking these hard-working individuals for their service, not leaving them with questions about their status and job security?

[Ben Gummer]

I agree entirely with the hon. Lady that we should be thanking EU nationals working in the NHS and social care system. She herself is evidence of the enormous contribution of migrant labourers, not just in the first generation but in subsequent ones. We, as a nation and a House, should be grateful for it. This is a difficult time for many EU nationals in this country, and we should be thanking them not just for the numbers but for the special qualities they bring. In my constituency, the amazing Portuguese nurses in Ipswich hospital bring qualities and skills that some of our own nurses in our own country do not possess in our own hospitals.