Oral Answers to Questions

Heidi Alexander Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[The Minister for Community and Social Care (Alistair Burt)]

May I welcome my hon. Friend to his place? Among the many good reasons to go to Cornwall over the next few months will be to visit the Cornwall better care fund, which is part of the Government’s £5.3 billion better care fund, and get the opportunity to see the work of the Cornwall pioneer. Integration of social care and healthcare is extremely important, and it will be great to see it in Cornwall.

[Heidi Alexander (Lewisham East) (Lab)]

T3. For the first time in recent history, many of London’s more prestigious teaching hospitals—King’s College, University College London, Guys and St Thomas’s, and the Royal Free—are all forecasting deficit budgets. Apart from crossing his fingers and hoping the economy picks up to fund investment, what exactly is the Secretary of State going to do to tackle this problem?

[Mr Hunt]

I would not expect the hon. Lady to want to listen to me on the “Today” programme, but I have been talking a lot today about the measures, including in my topical statement. I will tell her exactly what we are doing: this week we are announcing measures to restrict the use of agency staff, which was an important, necessary short-term measure in response to what happened at Mid Staffs. We need to move beyond that. Later in the week we will be helping trusts reduce their procurement costs and taking a number of measures, so a lot is happening. There are a lot of challenges, but I know that NHS trusts can deliver.