Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 18th October 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Burns]

No, I do not recognise that, because the figure that the right hon. Gentleman has used is an upper calculation, not an actual figure. I say to him that we are making efficiency savings, and that trusts should be cutting not front-line services but inefficiency, waste and excessive management, and reinvesting every single penny in front-line services.

[Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)]

6. What steps he is taking to ensure that patients receive accurate and unbiased information on treatment options.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul Burstow)]

The NHS constitution gives people a right to information about their treatment options. I want everyone to get timely, trustworthy information such as patient decision aids, so that they are involved in their care decisions. The Health and Social Care Bill will ensure that the commissioning board and clinical commissioning groups secure that.

[Helen Jones]

In the light of that answer, will the Minister condemn the decision by GPs in Haxby to use NHS data to tout the services of their own private company and give wrong information to patients? Or is that simply a foretaste of what will happen under the Health and Social Care Bill when clinical commissioning groups decide what services are necessary, leaving private companies in which they may have an interest to pick up the slack in a privatised, marketised NHS in which patients come last?

[Paul Burstow]

The hon. Lady is spreading yet more myths and misconceptions about the reforms that this Government are making. If she had researched the matter more thoroughly, she would know that there is a code of conduct for the promotion of NHS-funded services, which makes it clear that providers of primary medical services cannot directly or indirectly seek or accept from any of their patients payment or other remuneration for any treatment. As a result, the PCT is questioning that clinic about how it has used patient information and will continue to pursue the matter.