Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alec Shelbrooke

Tuesday 2nd April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The right hon. Lady just is not reflecting what has happened. Thanks to action by this Government and other Governments, a judicial process started in Saudi Arabia on 3 January and we are sending observers. We have a UN special rapporteur, Agnes Callamard, who is responsible for looking at extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions, and she is leading an independent international inquiry.

When I became Foreign Secretary—the right hon. Lady was shadow Foreign Secretary then, too—we did not have a peace process in Yemen, and now we do, which is thanks to the UK and the huge diplomatic effort we have been making.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

5. What discussions he has had with the Lima Group on the political and security situation in Venezuela.

NHS: Learning from Mistakes

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alec Shelbrooke

Wednesday 9th March 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am more than happy to look into that case, which is exactly the kind of thing that we are trying to stop with the measures we are bringing forward today.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on once again ensuring that patient healthcare and outcomes are at the forefront of his thinking, and that of professional health service workers who do such a brave job and can sometimes be caught in the crossfire. Does he agree that comments from people on the front line supporting the doctors strike—such as Mr Usman Ahmed, who started a post on Facebook by saying:

“I’ve always hated the Conservatives—a complete and utter bunch of…”;

I shall leave it there as I would not like to offend you, Madam Deputy Speaker—show that they do not care about healthcare and are more interested in their own political gain?

[Mr Hunt]

This, I am afraid, is the problem with some elements in the BMA, who are putting politics ahead of patients. As we have heard today, that is the problem in the Labour party as well.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alec Shelbrooke

Thursday 11th February 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will be pithy, Mr Speaker. This is not just about cost-neutrality, but about dealing with weekend care, which is why that proposal was not accepted.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

May I congratulate my right hon. Friend on always having at the forefront patient care and the wellbeing of young doctors? Did it not give the game away when the BMA said that this was a blow against austerity? Will he remind the House how much extra money has gone into the NHS, by contrast to what happened under the Labour party?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I am afraid that, regrettably, there are some political elements inside the BMA. The great irony is that, without the austerity measures that those same people opposed in the previous Parliament, we would not have been able to give the NHS its sixth biggest funding increase ever.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alec Shelbrooke

Tuesday 25th November 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

There are more doctors and more nurses operating at Medway hospital and I know that when the hon. Gentleman was sitting on this side of the House he was very pleased with the progress that was being made in turning it around from special measures, but, like UKIP’s policy on the NHS, everything changes.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

May I welcome the recent launch of MyNHS? Does my right hon. Friend agree that transparency of NHS performance, whether it be that of hospitals, GPs or surgeons, will be a major driver in improving patient care, as international evidence suggests, and help us avoid a scandal such as Mid Staffs, which happened under that lot over there?

[Mr Hunt]

Two thirds of the information we are publishing on MyNHS was actually collected by the previous Labour Government, but they refused to publish half of it. That is the difference.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alec Shelbrooke

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

2. What steps he is taking to ensure that compassionate care is at the heart of the NHS.

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

Last week, we published a full response to the Mid-Staffs public inquiry and set out our ambition to transform the quality of compassionate care in the NHS. We have already put in place a robust new inspection regime and measures to make it easier for doctors and nurses to speak out when they are concerned about standards of care or safety.

[Alec Shelbrooke]

Compassionate care goes right through from surgeons to GPs. Will my right hon. Friend comment on evidence that epileptic women of child-bearing age are not being shown the compassion necessary during pregnancy from their GPs or neurologists and are not having the risks of taking their epilepsy medication outlined to them? To date, such medication has caused more than 20,000 birth defects.

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for highlighting this important issue. The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency regularly reviews the evidence relating to anti-epileptic drug use, particularly sodium valproate products, and we check what information is available to doctors so that it can be passed on to patients. I am concerned about the issue my hon. Friend raises, so I have asked NHS England’s national director of patient safety, Dr Mike Durkin, to look into it carefully and get back to me.

Heart Surgery (Leeds)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alec Shelbrooke

Monday 15th April 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

This situation arose because of the much greater data transparency and because the Government have been encouraging people to come forward if they have concerns about things going wrong. As a result, we were presented with data on the basis of which the NHS director decided that the safe and sensible thing to do was to suspend surgery while we got to the bottom of these data, which could have demonstrated some very serious outcomes. We need to take good advice from clinicians about the balance of risk. Yes, there might be some risks with people having to travel further for the surgery, but surely the risks are much greater if potentially unsafe operations are allowed to continue. That was why, on that balance of risk, it was decided to suspend surgery at Leeds until we could get to the bottom of whether the data were right.

[Alec Shelbrooke (Elmet and Rothwell) (Con)]

In the week after surgery at the heart unit was suspended, my wife and I met a constituent in Rothwell whose child was due to go in for surgery. She was completely and utterly exhausted and overwrought with worry and concern. Many people were concerned not just about the suspension, but about the distances that they would have had to travel if Leeds had not reopened. That possibility, which we had previously mentioned, became a reality. Sir Roger has now been suspended from the review, but he had already reported. In order that we can take one positive out of what has happened in the past couple of weeks, will the Secretary of State ensure that the distances people have to travel are now taken seriously in the review?