Health

Gordon Birtwistle Excerpts

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Gordon Birtwistle (Burnley) (LD)]

The health service is very close to everyone’s hearts, and there are a lot of political gains to be made from it. I have to say that, as the Member of Parliament for Burnley, my election chances were boosted when Labour’s Secretary of State closed down our A and E unit. I am delighted to say that the coalition Government have now delivered us a brand new emergency centre in Burnley, which shows that the coalition Government have delivered good things, especially for the people of Burnley.

There is one issue that I really want to talk about today. I have been a councillor for 31 years—I stood for election only last month and increased my majority over Labour in my ward—and the issue that has become very close to my heart is the care of elderly people. I am talking about elderly people who are on their own. People from companies call on them in the morning to get them out of bed. They stay for 10 minutes to make sure they are up and have had some breakfast. They then come back at lunchtime to make sure they have eaten some lunch, and then again in the afternoon to make sure they have had their tea. They come back in the evening. As one elderly man said to me, “They come back at 8 o’clock and tell me to get ready for bed.” He said, “I don’t want to go to bed at 8 o’clock in the evening. I am 87 years old. I fought for this country, and now they are telling me that I have to go to bed at 8 o’clock. I don’t want to do that.” What he wants is for someone to come and see him in the morning and talk to him. He is housebound, and he does not have a family. He is not the only one in that situation. There are many more like him in Burnley.

We are a poor town and people cannot afford to pay for private services. These people want to talk to somebody in the morning when they get up; they want a bit of conversation. They do not want staff running in with their meals-on-wheels food in a foil container saying, “We’ll come back and see you later.” They want to talk to someone. They want to know that there is somebody who cares for them; somebody who is interested in listening to them. This elderly man has some fantastic stories about his life; I have seen him many times. When the staff come back in the evening, he is not asking them to stay all night. He is asking them to show a little bit of interest in him, and he certainly does not want to go to bed at 8 o’clock at night. He has never gone to bed at that time and for someone to tell him that he has to do so, “or he’ll be on his own” is wrong. I am not being political here. All I am saying is that we should care more for the elderly people of this country. I am talking not about people who are in their 60s, but about people who are in their 80s and 90s who, unfortunately, have been left on their own. They might be elderly ladies whose husbands have died. These are people who have worked for this country all their lives and fought for this country, and are now, certainly in my constituency anyway, being left alone. I find that hard to accept. I might be unusual. There might be people who think it is tough and bad luck, but I do not think that. We should be looking after these people and showing them some compassion. We are a wealthy country. Apparently, we are the fourth or fifth wealthiest country in the world, and the contribution that these people have made over their lives has helped to put us in that position.

Burnley is an industrial town; we had the pits and the mills. Now we have high-tech industry where young people work and create wealth. Fortunately these days, they are able to put something aside for their pension, which will help to look after them in their old age. The elderly people from the ‘70s, ‘80s and ‘90s could not do that; they were on poor salaries. In the main, the wives did not work. My mother never worked. My father brought up our family, and my mother never worked. All right, my mother and father are dead, but there are still people around who were in the same position. Many have lost a partner and in the main their children are out of the area, and they need us to care for them. Is it a lot to ask for someone to turn up and say, “Hello, Mr Jones. How are you?”

[Lyn Brown]

The whole House is listening very quietly to what the hon. Gentleman is saying because it resonates. My father is 87. He pays for carers to come in from an agency. What has upset us is the fact that his life savings are paying the wages of people who drive Lamborghinis, who employ people on the minimum wage and who provide very poor care to the people the hon. Gentleman is talking about. This Government need to act to ensure that the care offered to our people, which they pay for out of their meagre savings, is of the quality that they deserve.

--- Later in debate ---

[Gordon Birtwistle]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for her intervention. I do not know of a company that delivers services in Burnley that has an owner who drives a Lamborghini. In fact, I do not know anyone in my neck of the woods who has a Lamborghini. I do not know many people who can spell the word Lamborghini. At the end of the day, the hon. Lady is right: there are companies that are taking money, particularly from the state, and giving a very poor service. I do not want this to be a political point. What I want is to plead with the Minister and with the people in control—I am not in control, so I cannot deliver this—and say that we are living in an age where people are getting old and need looking after. Why can we not do a little bit more to look after these people? The people who get the sums of money to deliver this service should be a little bit more considerate and compassionate. They should not just walk through the door with a metal tray with a bit of food on that no one wants to eat, because it does not feel like the proper food they used to eat. Can we not just do a little bit more?

My message today is: can we do a bit more for our old people—the people who have put us where we are today, who have delivered the prosperity of this country over the years; and who have fought for us in wars? Can we not show them a bit more consideration? If those companies with Lamborghinis exist, can we lean on some of them to train people properly to ensure that they have a bit more compassion?

[Paul Burstow (Sutton and Cheam) (LD)]

I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me for turning my back to him, but I want to tell him through the Chair that one of the places that is trying to do what he is talking about, and which I visited recently, is Wiltshire, which is using its relationships with contractors to drive out 15-minute contracting and drive up training standards, which is making a difference. That is happening now, and it needs to happen in more places.

[Gordon Birtwistle]

I am delighted to hear that, and I would like Wiltshire to become a standard that everyone else copies. I would hope that my constituency and the rest of Lancashire copies that. There are great companies—I know a few good companies that really care about the customer. These elderly people are customers: if Tesco treated people like some of those carers, they would shop somewhere else. Unfortunately, elderly people cannot go anywhere else, because a contract has been organised, and they have to use it. I urge the Minister to consider those suggestions and look at ways of improving the service that we deliver to our old people. I would be very happy if he did so, and I am sure that he would be too.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

I completely agree with what my hon. Friend is trying to achieve. I hope that he is reassured that the Government have effectively introduced compulsory minimum training for all care assistants for the first time. I think he will welcome that.

[Gordon Birtwistle]

I do welcome it, and I am delighted to have heard that. I just hope that we make it a major condition of all Government and local authority contracts that all companies deliver that service to our elderly people. We will all become elderly—I am catching up very quickly—so who knows how soon it will be before someone comes to my house to say, “Gordon, it’s bedtime. It’s 8 o’clock—it’s toilet time.” That’s the worst thing I think I have ever heard—someone coming in and saying that it is toilet time. An old man said to me: “I do not want to go to the toilet, but I am told that it is time to go to the toilet.” It is just not acceptable to do that to an elderly man. I am delighted to hear what the Minister said, and I hope that we ensure that it continues in future so that we really respect and care for the people who have put us where we are today.