Health and Social Care

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Friday 3rd December 2021 Commons Chamber

[Edward Argar]

As the hon. Lady knows, I do not have responsibility for social care. The Minister for Care and Mental Health is sitting next to me and will have heard what she said and will take it back to the Department to see whether a letter in response can be expedited.

We are fixing the system for the long term, but my hon. Friend the Minister has announced £162 million that is already going into the bank accounts of organisations to help support the social care workforce. The hon. Member for Wirral South (Alison McGovern) is right that we need short-term support, but we also need a long-term solution. We are putting the money in to support this vital sector.

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

I thank the Minister and the Government for the eight successful bids into University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, which will see new wards opened and will go some way towards helping our local NHS through the winter. What a stark contrast that is with the Labour years. When the Queen Elizabeth Hospital was built it was supposed to cost about £500 million, but that has rolled into billions of pounds’ worth of private finance initiative debt. Is that not the difference between us and the Opposition?

[Edward Argar]

My hon. Friend is a doughty champion for Birmingham and his local trust. It is always a pleasure to announce more money going into his trust, and he is right to highlight the Labour party’s record on PFI.

Public Health

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Tuesday 30th November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Alex Norris]

My hon. Friend makes a good point that I will cover shortly. Of course the measure should apply to public transport and shops—and also to the House of Commons Chamber, but I will get to that shortly.

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

Last night I walked past the shadow Cabinet room and there was quite a party going on inside, and I popped my head round the corner and there was a lot of drinking and shuffling going on. That is fair enough, as those are the rules at the moment—knock yourselves out, it’s nearly Christmas—but why is it okay to come into the Chamber and tell us all one thing in front of the cameras and do something completely different behind closed doors?

[Alex Norris]

If the hon. Gentleman is seeking to redress grievances as to what Labour party parties he has and has not been invited to, I am the wrong person to address those concerns to.

In order to build confidence in this issue, I ask the Minister to publish the guidance she and her colleagues have relied on that says that public transport and shops are areas of likely transmission but hospitality spaces, for example, are not. We do need to build confidence.

Anyone who has taken journeys on public transport in recent months will have seen at first hand a lack of compliance; that is of course just the Prime Minister, but beyond that all of us will have seen it on the tube and elsewhere on our commute.

Health Incentives Scheme

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Friday 22nd October 2021 Commons Chamber

[Maggie Throup]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his great achievement, not just on running the marathon, but on raising so much money; that is amazing. He is quite right that feeling good about ourselves and getting exercise really does help our mental health.

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

I do not know why, but I feel overwhelmed to declare an interest in this particular topic. Does the Minister agree that it is often community organisations that provide the best outputs? Organisations such as Beeches Martial Arts and the Cofton Park Runners do so much to promote healthier living and exercise choices across the Northfield constituency. There might even be a role for local Members of Parliament to take part too.

[Maggie Throup]

Of course, I would always encourage local Members of Parliament to take part in and enjoy every activity in their constituencies. Just yesterday, I was having discussions with people from the public health arena, who talked about the importance of community-based activities, which are often run by charities and volunteers, and what a huge impact they can have on people’s lives, including on activity levels and weight management.

Covid-19 Update

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Tuesday 14th September 2021 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

Yes, of course I will. Gamston community centre, and community centres, village halls and so many other places up and down the country, including of course in my hon. Friend’s constituency, have done an amazing job. We still need them to help in our fight against the virus.

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

As the Secretary of State may know, in Birmingham, Northfield, just next door to his own constituency, vaccine take-up has been about 75%. Unfortunately, in some parts of Birmingham it has been as low as 47%. Will he join me in encouraging anyone who is hesitant about taking the vaccine to take part in Birmingham City Council’s quick one-minute survey about why they have those anxieties? It is very important that we all understand where those anxieties lie, because, after all, the vaccine is pivotal to our success.

[Sajid Javid]

Yes, I will join my hon. Friend in encouraging people to do that. It will be a one minute very well spent.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Tuesday 17th November 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

I welcome the news that the Secretary of State has secured 5 million doses of the Moderna vaccine, totalling 355 million dosages for the UK. Does he agree that it is key to putting this virus back in its box, and that it is down to the willingness of the great British public to step forward and to voluntarily have this vaccine so that we can all move on?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, that is right. A vaccine will be approved only if it is both effective and safe, so when your ticket comes up, if you are asked to take the vaccine, then I and the whole serious clinical establishment—all of those who understand the vaccines and the value of them —will be urging people right across the country to get it, because it is good for you, it protects your loved ones and it protects your community. It is the primary route, alongside other things like testing, by which we will get out of this and get life back more closely to normal.

Oral Answers to Questions

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Tuesday 23rd June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

Because this is a big team effort by a combination of public and private sector partners. I pay tribute to Deloitte, without which the testing programme would not be possible. I pay tribute to all the pharmaceutical companies and I pay tribute to Amazon, which has delivered the home testing with remarkable success. Instead of trying to divide, we should unite and bring people together.

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

Dr David Rosser and his team at the University Hospitals Birmingham NHS foundation trust have done amazing work during the pandemic to make sure that people in Birmingham are safe and cared for. Will the Secretary of State give them all the flexibility and support they need to ensure that services at hospitals like Queen Elizabeth can go back to normal as quickly and as safely as possible?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes. David Rosser is a great leader of a very, very impressive trust. I was speaking to him only last week. There is an important lesson from covid, which is that many of the NHS central rules and much of the bureaucracy was lifted to allow local systems to respond as a health system. That has worked well. We need to learn from that. We need to not only make that permanent, but see where we can go further in that sort of system working.

Social Distancing: 2 Metre Rule

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Monday 15th June 2020 Commons Chamber

[Edward Argar]

While I note the hon. Gentleman’s point about international comparisons, actually I believe that learning lessons from other countries is something that can be valuable and is something that will be taken into consideration in this review. We should always be willing to look externally to see if there is anything we can learn. As I have made clear to him and to other Members previously, it is important that we consider the scientific evidence and ensure that whatever we do keeps pressing down on the virus and protects public health, but at the same time we must not lose sight of the fact that it is important we get our economy up and running again as swiftly and safely as we can.

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

Businesses throughout Longbridge, Northfield, Weoley Castle and Kings Norton have done everything they can to follow the guidance, but they are desperate for the 2 metre rule to be reduced so that they can survive, and in many cases so that they can reopen. Will the Minister commit to publishing detailed guidance when the review is finished, so that organisations such as Northfield Business Improvement District can help to keep customers and staff safe and businesses can thrive?

[Edward Argar]

My hon. Friend is a great champion of businesses not only in his constituency but across his great city. I hear exactly what he says, and we have been clear that once the review has reported and the Prime Minister has had the opportunity to consider it, we expect the conclusions to be made public.

Coronavirus

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

Wednesday 11th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The delivery of social care is a devolved matter. We will publish guidance, and we will work with the devolved authorities to make that as consistent as possible, but social care policy is different in the four nations, so obviously we will have to take those differences into account.

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

On Sunday, Birmingham will host one of the largest St Patrick’s Day parades in the world. Can the Health Secretary assure me and the people of Birmingham that he will do everything he can to issue the right guidance as quickly and effectively as possible so that people can make sensible decisions when it comes to their use of public transport and attending mass gatherings?

NHS Funding Bill

Gary Sambrook Excerpts

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Monday 27th January 2020 Commons Chamber

[Gary Sambrook (Birmingham, Northfield) (Con)]

I congratulate those Members who have made their maiden speeches today, particularly my hon. Friends the Members for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) and for Darlington (Peter Gibson), and the hon. Member for Kirkcaldy and Cowdenbeath (Neale Hanvey), who all made excellent contributions. I look forward to further contributions from them in the future.

I fully support the Government’s approach to our NHS and to enshrining in law the commitment to this budget. I have a daily reminder of how precious the NHS is, because when I was two weeks old, I nearly died in hospital. I have a scar right across me, which reminds me every day of that time. I had a stomach problem and, ironically, nearly died of malnutrition, but I have made up that for since. Just last week I had another example of how precious the NHS is when one of my little sisters—she is not so little any more; she is in her mid-twenties—gave birth to her first child, my nephew, little Freddie, who is an absolute bundle of joy. The staff at City Hospital in Birmingham did us all proud in helping her to deliver her first child.

It is testament to the professionalism of our NHS staff that they can provide a fantastic service for things such as the birth of a child, which are great news for families, and at the same time offer professional services to people at the saddest time in their family’s life. I am reminded of the NHS staff who supported my mother and my stepfather, Dave, in his final days as he fought his battle with cancer. It is the staff of the NHS who do so much for so many families across the country. I declare an interest in that my stepmom, my sister and a couple of my cousins work in the NHS, from cardiology department to hospital porter, all playing their role in that precious institution that we should protect for many years to come.

It is because of my experiences in the NHS that I passionately believe that the NHS long-term plan should be clinically driven. Professional NHS staff have requested that the Government do certain things, and it is this Conservative Government who are delivering on that, with 40 new hospitals, 50,000 new nurses, 6,000 more doctors, 6,000 more primary care professionals, 50 million more GP appointments and free car parking for those in most need. Those are all things that we are delivering on, and I am proud to say that I am part of helping to deliver them. The NHS budget for last year was £114 billion. By 2024, it will be £148 billion, an increase of 30%. That will secure those excellent services that we are used to for many years to come.

My first official visit this year as a Member of Parliament was to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in my constituency, and it was a pleasure to meet Jo Williams, the chief executive. She enthusiastically showed me a picture on the wall of the improvements that the Royal Orthopaedic had made over the last couple of years. Back in 2014, a chart from the Care Quality Commission report had lots of red and amber categories, but I am pleased to say that only one of the 36 categories is now amber, which is testament to her and her team in that hospital. They made all those improvements and provide an excellent service to the people of south Birmingham.

We must also be mindful, as my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Mrs Elphicke) so eloquently put it earlier, that the NHS does not always get things right. There are bad apples in every organisation. People can get things wrong, accidents can happen, and systems and processes do not always adapt as quickly as we would like. We must do everything we can as a Government to ensure that things are fixed as quickly as possible when they do go wrong.

I am mindful of health inequality in my Northfield constituency. Although life expectancy has improved over the past couple of years and is above average for Birmingham, it is still below average for the rest of England, and we need to be mindful of that as we go about implementing the long-term plan for the NHS. The three biggest contributions to premature mortality in Northfield are coronary heart disease, lung cancer and alcoholic liver disease, and I am going to be looking further into all three on my constituents’ behalf to ensure that we can further improve life expectancy.

The Prime Minister often rightly says that we need to level up our economy, but we also need to level up health across the country. It is not just the economy that sees huge disparities between the south, the north, and the midlands, because health sees the same. I am confident that this Government, under the leadership of our Prime Minister and the Department of Health and Social Care team, will be doing just that, and I look forward to working with them over the years to come.