(3 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberSorry about the gremlins, Imran, but the Secretary of State did very well in answering your question.
Can my right hon. Friend assure my constituents that bringing health and social care much closer together will help to provide a more efficient, higher-quality service? Can he specifically outline how an integrated care model may help to reduce demand for emergency services in Lincolnshire?
I very much hope so. This is about being able to deliver services according to local need and, crucially, not just looking at the patients who turn up—whether that is to an emergency service or through their GP for treatment in secondary care—but trying to get ahead of that and support people to stay healthy, bringing the budget of the NHS to bear on keeping people healthy in the first place. That preventive agenda is critical and can ensure not only that people stay more healthy but that we spend money more wisely.
(4 years, 4 months ago)
Commons ChamberAbsolutely. My hon. Friend is a great advocate for Devon, and for East Devon in particular. The Nightingale Hospital in Exeter will have more flexible uses than the previous Nightingales, so, for instance, it will be usable should there be extra winter pressures. This is all part of protecting our NHS. At the heart of our response to this dreadful disease, we protected the NHS, making sure it was always there for everyone. That has been down to, and is a testament to, the work of so many people, who delivered on that requirement.
Yesterday, our local NHS trust, the United Lincolnshire Hospitals NHS Trust, temporarily downgraded and closed emergency admissions at Grantham and District Hospital, in response to covid-19. After many years of uncertainty, there is understandable scepticism about this latest move by the trust. Will the Secretary of State join me in calling on the trust to ensure that these changes are indeed temporary and that covid is not used as cover to make them permanent?
Thanks to my hon. Friend’s assiduous work on behalf of his constituents in Grantham, and at his suggestion, I discussed this issue directly with NHS officials. Grantham’s unit will be open, 24/7, as an urgent treatment centre; this is part of plans to ensure that covid and non-covid services are kept as separate as possible. In addition, thanks to his intervention, we will ensure that that position will be reviewed quarterly.
(4 years, 5 months ago)
Commons ChamberWe have put in place extensive protections for people who are shielded, and those protections will of course continue to apply until 30 June. Shielding is not something that we do lightly, because we understand the very significant impact it has on those concerned and their families, but it is necessary in a pandemic like this.
Lincolnshire is fortunate to have good supplies of PPE, a relatively low infection rate and excellent capacity in our hospitals at this time. Will the Secretary of State join me in thanking our NHS staff across Lincolnshire, who have been intensely dedicated to treating covid-19 patients, but who are also increasingly aware of the needs of non-covid patients?
Yes, I will. The NHS restart is incredibly important in Lincolnshire and across the country. I know Lincolnshire well, and it is very important that we restart other services that have had to be paused for understandable reasons. Not only is Lincolnshire the home to many dedicated health and social care staff—I pay tribute to all those who work in the NHS in Lincolnshire—but my grandmother was a nurse at the Pilgrim Hospital in Boston and our great deputy chief medical officer, Professor Jonathan Van-Tam, is himself a resident of Lincolnshire. Lincolnshire has many great things to offer in the sphere of health, and we must ensure that that is about not just covid but health services across the board.
(4 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberI know that the hon. Lady has personal experience in this area. I entirely understand the concern she raises. The personal plans that are being brought out from next year should help to address this problem, but the Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill), is very happy to meet her to make sure we get this exactly right.
It is vital that the people of Grantham are able to access 24-hour care for both accident and emergency and urgent treatment needs. I urge my hon. Friend to continue to work with his local health services and commissioners to develop plans to ensure the needs of his constituents are met. I know he has already been a strong advocate on this matter in this House for his constituents since his election, but I am of course very happy to visit him in Grantham if that would be helpful to him.