Oral Answers to Questions

Helen Jones Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd June 2015 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

I welcome the hon. Lady back to her place. It is good to see her back in that job and not on the Government Benches. It is far from the case that we took a passive approach—far from it. Some important things were learned from the way we have worked with industry and we are looking to build on those, but as I have said, there is no silver bullet. There is not a single academic study in the world that says that the way to respond to obesity in the developed world is through a single mechanism. We have to look at a whole-system approach, and that is what we are doing.

[Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab)]

12. What estimate he has made of the anticipated levels of deficits in hospital trusts for the current financial year.

[The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

The NHS faces significant financial challenges this year and beyond. That is why we have now committed £10 billion extra for the NHS—£2 billion for this year and at least £8 billion more by 2020. Individual trust plans for 2015-16 are still being worked up but, with concerted financial control from providers, we expect to deliver financial balance in 2015-16.

[Helen Jones]

But does the Secretary of State accept that in trusts such as mine, which anticipates a £15 million deficit this year, that cannot be done without cuts to staff, beds and services? What happened to the Prime Minister’s pledge on a bare-knuckle fight to protect district general hospitals, when trusts such as mine are facing such circumstances?