National Health Service Funding

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alex Chalk

Tuesday 22nd November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will make some progress, but I will find time to give way to hon. Friends who I know want to come in.

I want to pick up on a particularly extraordinary comment made yesterday by the shadow Health Secretary. He said:

“aggressive efficiency targets have contributed to deficits”.

That is a curious thing to say, first because his own spending plans would have meant £5.5 billion more efficiencies. If he thinks our plans are aggressive, I just wonder how he would describe Labour’s approach. Secondly, I know we are all Corbynistas now, but basic economics suggests that efficiency plans do not increase deficits, but reduce deficits. That is what we need to do in the NHS, because we want the money to go to patient care.

There is another danger in the shadow Health Secretary’s argument, a trap that is very easy not just for him but for many commentators to fall into: the suggestion that this is a uniform problem across the NHS that it is powerless to grip without further Government intervention. The reality is that there is huge variation across the system. The deficits at good or outstanding trusts are five times less than the deficits at other trusts. If all trusts had the same financial performance as the good or outstanding ones, we would have a surplus of nearly half a billion pounds. Half the deficits are from just 22 trusts. We see this variation on a very specific level. For example, the amount paid for a pair of surgical gloves, which are very important to all hospitals, is £1.27 in some hospitals and just 50p in others. As for waiting lists, of 1,000 people who are waiting more than a year for their treatment, which is unacceptable, there is just one person from an outstanding trust who has been waiting that long. Some 93% are from trusts that require improvement or are inadequate. This is why we have a huge programme to support and improve those trusts and deal with the challenges they face.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

On financial management, does the Secretary of State recognise that in Labour-run Wales agency staff spend has increased 60% in the past year? That compares with the tough measures taken in England to crack down on wasteful spending.

[Mr Hunt]

I do recognise that. It has been going up in Scotland as well. It is short-sighted of both Administrations not to work with us to tackle the problem; otherwise, staff living in border areas play off one system against the other.

Junior Doctors: Industrial Action

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alex Chalk

Monday 5th September 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

It absolutely should. The BMA has been out of step with both the British public and its own members this week. My hon. Friend’s own hospital in Hereford—Hereford county hospital—is in special measures. It has a huge number of problems, which it is working really hard to sort out, and we are helping it to sort them out. Is that not what we should be focusing on in the NHS, rather than having to do contingency planning for these damaging strikes?

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the actions of the BMA in warmly backing the contract in May only to condemn it in August and call for these extreme strikes have seriously damaged its credibility? On the issue of pay, which we know from the leaked WhatsApp messages is the only red line, can he confirm that no doctor working legal hours will be paid less?

Junior Doctors Contract

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alex Chalk

Thursday 19th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I agree. We need more doctors and we need more nurses. By the end of this Parliament, we will have over a million more over-70s in England alone, and I know that the demographic effects in Northern Ireland will be equivalent. We have a global shortage of about 7 million doctors, so we need to train more. We are training an extra 11,420 doctors over this Parliament as part of the spending review. The training is done on a UK-wide basis, so we will need to work closely with all the devolved regions on it.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

I warmly welcome this draft agreement, which will be met with some relief in Cheltenham. Whatever our deeply held concerns about the behaviour of the BMA in the past, does the Secretary of State agree that it should be our ambition that the agreement will mark the beginning of a more constructive future? Will he join me in congratulating BMA negotiators, including Dr Malawana, for being prepared to address constructively issues such as Saturday pay?

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do that. I recognise that this was not easy for those people, because it involved changing a position that they had held for more than three years. When we looked at the details, the result that we got to was not difficult for them to sign up to because they could see that it really was better for their members, as well as better for patients. The lesson here is that the NHS faces huge challenges, and it can only be right to deal with them by sitting round the table and negotiating constructively.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alex Chalk

Monday 25th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely. My hon. Friend is quite right to point out that the seven-day NHS vision is not just about junior doctors but about support services for junior doctors that will make the provision of care to their patients at weekends not just better for those patients but much more rewarding for them. It is immensely frustrating for doctors not to be able to get diagnostic tests back quickly because it is the weekend. We want to sort out all those problems. That will be better for doctors and better for patients.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

Whatever the objections to this contract, and however sincerely they are held, withdrawing emergency care for seriously ill patients cannot be on the list of options. On Saturday pay, will the Secretary of State bring absolute clarity to something that may have been misrepresented, or at least misunderstood: will doctors who work regular Saturdays —that is, more than one in four—continue to receive a pay uplift?

[Mr Hunt]

Yes, they will. That is the main outstanding issue of a very small handful of issues that were not resolved. We went a very long way towards what the BMA wanted. We are reducing premium rates for Saturday pay, but are making up for that with a 13.5% increase in basic pay. That will mean that hospitals can roster more doctors at weekends and that the doctors who work the most weekends will continue to get premium pay for that extra work. It is a good thing for doctors and for patients.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Alex Chalk

Monday 18th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

With respect, all the hon. Gentleman needs to do is look in Hansard at my response to the urgent question, which made it clear that we have the right to introduce a new contract. On the basis of the conventions that currently apply in the NHS, that contract will apply to all junior doctors. Foundation trusts do indeed have the right to set their own terms and conditions, but they choose not to do so.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

This unprecedented withdrawal of emergency care seems to revolve principally around the issue of pay on Saturdays. Will the Secretary of State clarify whether pay uplifts will continue to be available to junior doctors who work regular Saturdays?

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely. More to the point, any doctors who see an increase in their Saturday workload will see a significant increase in their pay, including their premium pay. The contract is designed to make sure that we reward people who work the longest and most antisocial hours, including women, but in a way that means that we can afford to deliver a seven-day NHS, which is why it is good for patients as well.