Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Freddie van Mierlo and Zubir Ahmed

Tuesday 14th April 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dr Ahmed]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for highlighting those cuts and the devastating impact they had, particularly on mental health and eating disorder services. She is absolutely right that we have to do a lot more on the pathways, including harmonising some of the data and clinical coding to make sure that we are catching people early in the process. As I said, the prevalence review will now focus on eating disorders as well—that is a welcome intervention—and of course, children become adults, so we must end the cliff edge at the age of 18 and make sure that care continues in a holistic fashion. We are getting on with that.

[Freddie van Mierlo (Henley and Thame) (LD)]

Young girls are particularly vulnerable to eating disorders, which are a parent’s worst nightmare. We are seeing social media companies push content on to young girls that encourages eating disorders. What is the Minister doing with Cabinet colleagues to take on this problem?

[Dr Ahmed]

The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. The Government are conducting a consultation to examine the most effective ways that we can go further to ensure that children have healthy online experiences. The three-month consultation, which is evidence-led and has input from independent experts, will include determining the right minimum age for children to access social media, and it will report in the summer.

Pharmacy First: Withholding Payments

Debate between Freddie van Mierlo and Zubir Ahmed

Thursday 12th February 2026 Commons Chamber

[Dr Ahmed]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for adumbrating how 14 years of Tory Government have led to significant decay in the provision of primary care services in some of our communities. He is right to mention dispensing doctors, who are a vital part of the mixture in hard-to-reach and coastal communities. I had many meetings with them prior to my appointment, and my colleague the Minister for Care will continue to meet them to ensure that they continue to be part of the mix of care provision in those communities.

[Freddie van Mierlo (Henley and Thame) (LD)]

Last year, I visited a pharmacy in Benson in my constituency, where Vik Patel described to me how the pharmacy’s being rural disadvantages it in the Pharmacy First scheme. His pharmacy never meets the threshold to qualify for payment, and that threshold has gone up over and over again, from five patients a month in April last year to 30 in March 2025, so the pharmacy is effectively delivering a service for free. Vik is a lovely chap, and he is happy to do that, but it is not a sustainable business model. What will the Minister do to help rural pharmacies like mine in Benson?