Immigrants (NHS Treatment) Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Gerry Sutcliffe
Main Page: Gerry Sutcliffe (Labour - Bradford South)Department Debates - View all Gerry Sutcliffe's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(11 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Mr Hunt
My hon. Friend asks a very important question. We have to recognise the pressure on GPs and must be careful not to increase the bureaucratic burden on them. The long-term answer is to have proper digital patient records. If the first thing that people are asked for when they enter any part of the NHS is an NHS number that allows the person they are seeing to look at their medical history, which could be a trigger to identify someone who should be paying for their NHS care. We are seeing whether there is a non-bureaucratic way of achieving that in the short term, while we put that technological system in place.
Mr Gerry Sutcliffe (Bradford South) (Lab)
The Secretary of State and the Conservative party should remember that the coalition has been in power for nearly three years and nothing has happened on this issue. There are two things that he could do. He could withdraw the circular today and he could consider introducing an entitlement card that people could carry with them.