Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 14th November 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

Let me say two things. First, we have no quarter with any incidence of fraud. We have commenced 51 criminal investigations into suspected fraud cases and there have been a total of 80 arrests so far. Let me also say that during the pandemic we introduced £400 billion of support to businesses and families up and down the country and, according to the latest figures from the Office for National Statistics, the result is that our economy is nearly 2% bigger than pre-pandemic, while Germany’s, for example, is only 0.3% bigger.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T3. Primary care capital allocation has pulled the short straw for decades. May I encourage Treasury Ministers to look across Government and with developers —retrospectively if necessary—to ensure that when we build huge new housing estates, the primary care promised in the planning permissions is actually provided?

[Jeremy Hunt]

I will take this question as well because my hon. Friend has lobbied me personally on this issue. Literally no one in this House has worked harder on it than he has. I have an example of the very problem he is talking about in my own constituency. He is right that it takes too long for housing development capital to reach NHS primary care projects. We will look into the issue carefully.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 7th February 2023 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

What I can confirm is that there will be no tax cuts funded by borrowing. I can also confirm that those of us on this side of the House, unlike those on the hon. Member’s side, believe in lower taxes.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T9. Businesses that had to renegotiate their energy contracts in the second half of last year did so at the top of the market, so how can we prioritise those businesses in particular for energy efficiency measures?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 15th November 2022 Commons Chamber

[Jeremy Hunt]

We will have many exchanges, so I ask the hon. Lady, when she picks a statistic about next year’s growth, not to do so too selectively because this year, we have the fastest growth in the G7. Since 2010, we have had the third highest growth rate in the G7, and we have the lowest unemployment for more than 40 years. That is because Conservatives take the difficult decisions that are necessary to make our economy thrive.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T4. Given that we have an energy crisis, will the Government allow onshore wind where communities want it, require built-in photovoltaics, where they will work, on new homes, and allow solar farms on 3b land?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 14th May 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

If we failed to pay any of our staff on time, I take full responsibility. It is the first I have heard of that issue and I will look into it rapidly. But I do think it is important that Britain has residences around the world, where we entertain foreign Governments and do our diplomacy, that we can be proud of and that reflect our role in the world.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T5. Detention without trial for many years is a feature of several countries, in Africa and elsewhere. That does not seem to be core business for DFID. What recommendations does the Foreign Office have on this issue when we engage with other countries?

Gosport Independent Panel: Publication of Report

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Wednesday 20th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is the big question we have to answer for both the House and the British people. However, I would say to the hon. Lady that I am confident that, where there is unsafe practice, it is surfaced much more quickly now in the NHS than it has been in the past. I am less confident about whether we have removed the bureaucratic obstacles that mean the processes of doing such investigations are not delayed inordinately so that the broader lessons that need to be learned can be learned.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

One of the reasons for the growing success of the “Getting it right first time” programme is the creation of clinician-agreed datasets. Will the Secretary of State give the House an assurance that there will in future be proper analysis of the data on the excess number of deaths and the use of this particular type of drug in excessive amounts? Such analysis would have shown this hospital as an outlier, so questions could have been asked, as is now happening successfully with the GIRFT programme.

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for his championing of the GIRFT programme, which is incredibly powerful and successful. He will have noticed that we announced last week that we are expanding it into a national clinical information programme, which will cover more than 70% of consultants. What is disturbing in this case, though, if I may say so, is that the data was really around mortality, and we have actually had that data for this whole period. There is really nothing to stop anyone looking at data, and we can see a spike in the mortality rates in this hospital between 1997 and 2001. They go down dramatically in 2001, when the practices around opiates were changed. That is why we have to ask ourselves the very difficult question about why no one looked at that data or, if they did, why no one did anything about it.

Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Wednesday 21st February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I understand why the hon. Lady has asked her question in the way that she has, but we set up the expert working group after a lot of very careful thought because we honestly wanted an answer. We are faced with circumstances in which scientists disagree, and in those circumstances it would not be right for me, as Secretary of State, to announce a different scientific view. I think that the right thing to do is to allow someone the time and space in which to look at the issues that the hon. Lady has raised, and that is what Baroness Cumberlege will do.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I have a constituent whose quality of life has been completely ruined by a surgical mesh implant. What reassurance can we have that the Cumberlege review will ensure that the voice of the patient is listened to much more quickly in future, so that when things go wrong, we limit the number of patients who suffer the type of harm that we have heard about this morning?

[Mr Hunt]

That is the right question to ask. I suggested in the statement that we might need a patients’ champion whose job would be to collect the experiences and views of patients who think that they may have suffered as a result of medicine or medical devices. However, we want Baroness Cumberlege to look at the issue in much more detail. The central point is that if we are to avoid the agonies experienced by my hon. Friend’s constituents, the patient’s voice needs to be as strong as the clinician’s in discussions about the efficacy of medicines or medical devices. That clearly has not been happening to date, but I think that we are moving away from the paternalist system that has operated in the past, and the review will constitute a further step in that direction.

Maternity Safety Strategy

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 28th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I can absolutely confirm that for low-risk births that is the case, but it is also key to spot the births that are not low-risk, so that alternative provision can be made.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State do everything possible to spread across the country the excellent “dads to be” courses that are part of the antenatal provision at Chelsea and Westminster and Kingston Hospitals? We know that they help solidify relationships between parents at a moment of strain and reduce family breakdown.

[Mr Hunt]

I am intrigued to hear that, because my three children were born at the Chelsea and Westminster, and my wife would have been delighted if I had done a “dads to be” course. I will certainly look into that course and, I am sure, actively promote it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 4th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I think the answer is that this varies from area to area. The CCGs grew up organically following the Health and Social Care Act 2012. Some parts of the country are discovering that the groups can be more effective if they combine forces, but these things have to be decided locally.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

In addition to the Government’s welcome focus on mental health first aid, may we have equal focus on mental health keep fit, looking particularly at the Mental Health Foundation’s 10 pointers, so that we can all keep our mental health in good condition?

[Mr Hunt]

As ever, my hon. Friend makes an important point. I think that every child should leave school as knowledgeable about how to remain mentally resilient as about how to be physically healthy.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 21st March 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right that areas such as Lincolnshire find it particularly difficult to attract GP recruits, which is why we have set up a fund that gives new GP trainees a financial incentive to move to some of the more remote parts of the country. This is beginning to have some effect, and I am happy to write to her with more details.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I warmly welcome the Secretary of State’s efforts to recruit more GPs, and I know that he wants all GPs and, indeed, doctors to have high levels of job satisfaction. Is he aware of the fact that reasonable numbers of doctors are leaving the UK to work overseas? Given the cost of medical training and the money that taxpayers put into that education, will he look at that issue, perhaps by requiring a certain commitment to the NHS?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. There is currently no evidence of an increase in the number of doctors going to work abroad, but there is an issue of fairness because it costs around £230,000 to train a doctor over five years. In return for that, there should be some commitment to spend some time working in the NHS, and we are consulting on that at the moment.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 7th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I recognise that it is not a sustainable position to have to do that. Pressures on the frontline meant that it had to happen, but we do need to invest for the future and I agree with the hon. Lady that capital budgets are very important.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Young people with severe anxiety can spend years out of school and become very isolated. Does the Secretary of State agree that we need to think more imaginatively about community and voluntary solutions to reach out to those young people, whose futures we must not give up on?

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely agree. About 3% of schoolchildren have severe anxiety, but if we get treatment to them quickly, often we cure the condition and it does not come back. My hon. Friend is absolutely right that we need to be as imaginative as possible.

Mental Health and NHS Performance

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Monday 9th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will write to the hon. Gentleman with the figures.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

More than a third of A&E attendances at peak times are caused by drunkenness. Behaviour on such a scale is as unacceptable as it is irresponsible. What more can be done to reduce that proportion hugely by this time next year?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend has raised an issue of public accountability. These are our national health services, and we need to treat them in a responsible way. It is selfish to behave irresponsibly and impose pressure on an A&E department, because someone else who needs help may not be able to get it.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 20th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will tell the hon. Lady what I take responsibility for: more doctors, more nurses and more funding than ever before in the history of the NHS. We know that the highest standards are often achieved when there is strong clinical leadership. Only 54% of managers in this country are clinicians, compared with 74% in Canada and 94% in Sweden. That is why it is right that we do everything we can to encourage more clinicians into leadership roles.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Does the Secretary of State agree that the clinical leadership involved in the Getting It Right First Time initiative is important, not only because it will save £1.5 billion, which could be put back into patient care, but because patients will be in less pain and will end up having fewer revision operations, and some will even survive treatment that they would not otherwise have survived?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I thank him for bringing Professor Tim Briggs to see me to explain just how superb this programme is. Infection rates for orthopaedic surgery vary between one in 20 patients in some trusts to one in 500 in others. Getting this right can transform care for patients and save money at the same time.

CQC: NHS Deaths Review

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 13th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I want to put on the record that the right hon. Gentleman was a big champion for people with learning disabilities when he was in my ministerial team, in particular over issues such as Winterbourne View, which he brought to my attention and did a huge amount of positive work on.

I have met Sara Ryan. I spoke to her again yesterday. I repeat what I said in my statement: that without her campaigning we would not now be making the huge changes on a national level that we are. I wholeheartedly agree with the right hon. Gentleman’s other comments.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

The review found that acute and community trusts do not always record whether a patient has a mental health illness or learning disability. What steps will we take—such as, for example, the expansion of liaison psychiatry services—to make sure there is proper join-up and real parity of esteem?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. We are making sure that all A&Es have liaison psychiatry services by the end of this Parliament. The critical issue is that someone with a severe mental health problem or learning disability who turns up in an A&E has special needs, and has bigger needs than the other patients there, but unless that is recognised early in the process, they are unlikely to get the care they need. If a tragedy then happens and they go on to die—as sadly happens sometimes—but the illness or disability is not known about, people do not realise that there are other potential issues. That is why the report is very clear that all acute trusts are required to know when patients have learning disabilities or mental health problems and to pay particular attention in any mortality investigations that happen regarding those patients.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are working very carefully with all STP areas to make sure that their plans are balanced so that we can live within the extra funding we are putting into the NHS—an extra £10 billion—by 2020-21. We will look at that plan and do everything we can to help to make sure that it works out.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T3. Will the Secretary of State join me in thanking Dr Ollie O’Toole of the Kirby Road surgery in Dunstable for representing all of the very best in a family doctor? Will he also explain what more we can do to encourage people to go into general practice rather than working for locum companies, which so many seem to want to do at the moment?

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do that, and I would like to pass on my congratulations to Dr O’Toole, who obviously does a fantastic job for my hon. Friend’s constituents. We are investing significantly in general practice, with a 14% increase in real terms over this Parliament and our ambition to provide an extra 5,000 doctors working in general practice. This will mean that the need for locums will become much less and we can have much more continuity of care for patients.

NHS Funding

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Monday 31st October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will tell the hon. Lady when that rhetoric became reality. We now have the highest dementia diagnosis rates in the world, according to some estimates. We are treating three quarters of a million more people with talking therapies every year than we were in 2010. Every single day, we are treating 1,400 more mental health patients. By the end of this Parliament, because of our spending plans, we will be spending £1 billion more on mental health every single year, treating 1 million more people. I think that that is pretty good.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Is not one way to help the NHS to deal with its financial pressures by focusing on improving quality and using proper data? Professor Tim Briggs’s report, “Getting it Right First Time” is already improving patient outcomes and saving the NHS money.

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for bringing Professor Briggs to meet me. He is an extremely inspiring man. He has established that every time someone has an infection during an orthopaedic operation, it costs the NHS £100,000 to put it right, but that is happening 0.5% of the time in the case of some surgeons and 4% of the time in the case of others. Dealing with variation of that kind is a way not just to reduce costs, but to avoid enormous human heartache.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

NICE has taken the sensible decision to issue its guidance. It does so independently, but we are not making it mandatory on the advice of the chief nursing officer and many other chief nurses across the country for the simple reason that if we have a mandatory minimum, that can become the maximum that trusts invest in and many wards need more than 1:8. That is why NICE’s guidance was so important today.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

T5. The Chavasse report on improving care for members of the armed services and veterans builds on the improvements that we have already made and has been welcomed by the Department of Health and indeed the Ministry of Defence. We owe it to our armed services to carry on making improvements to their care, so will the Minister encourage NHS England to look favourably on its recommendations?

Patient Safety

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I very much agree with my hon. Friend, and he will know that one of the things we have introduced this year is the duty of candour, which makes it a legal requirement for trusts to be honest with patients and their families when harm or avoidable death has occurred. He is absolutely right that we have to tackle this, and he will also know that when trusts are open and transparent, relatives are less likely to sue, because they recognise the good will and spirit involved.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State join me in commending the initiative of Bedfordshire clinical commissioning group, under the excellent leadership of Dunstable GP Dr Paul Hassan, which has instituted unannounced checks on the wards of local hospitals by local GPs?

[Mr Hunt]

I do commend that, and it is excellent to see CCGs taking responsibility, because they control the NHS budgets. I think that is an excellent initiative, and I hope that other CCGs follow suit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 1st April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

1. What steps he is taking to improve compassionate care in the NHS.

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

The Government have made it a key priority to restore a culture of compassionate care throughout our NHS. Ten thousand nurses and midwives will have taken part in a new leadership programme that champions patient-focused compassionate care. Pilots are testing whether all nurses should spend time on the wards prior to a nursing degree.

[Andrew Selous]

Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating NHS staff, who are shifting the priorities of the NHS culture towards compassionate care and away from a tick-box culture? Does he agree with Robert Francis, who says that compassionate care very often saves money?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Last week I was in one of the safest hospitals in the world, Virginia Mason hospital in Seattle, which has cut litigation claims by three quarters since it introduced safer care. We have fantastic hospitals in this country too, such as Salford Royal. The truth is that safer care is better value for money: it means that more money can be spent on the front line, not on litigation.

Accident and Emergency Departments

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I do not have the figure at my fingertips, but I will happily write to the hon. Gentleman.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

I would like to praise very highly the A and E staff at Luton and Dunstable hospital, whose work I have seen at close quarters on a number of recent occasions. If A and E staff had access to GP records, would there not be better diagnosis and would not time be saved? If some of our smaller hospitals are doing that, it raises the question why all of them are not.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. The truth is that many in the NHS had their fingers burnt when the previous Government, with the best of intentions, tried to address the problem, unfortunately with abysmal results and billions of pounds wasted. I do not think that we should let that failure stop us doing what we know can transform services. When we look at the changes that have been made in the banking, airline and retail industries, we see that we need to use the benefits of modern technology in the NHS. It will save thousands of lives.

Immigrants (NHS Treatment)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Monday 25th March 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend might be right—we need to look at that—but as I have told my hon. Friend the Member for Dover (Charlie Elphicke), one factor is that a number of our pensioners retire to sunnier climates, which leads to that imbalance.

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

Is the Health Secretary aware that general practitioners have been calling for the measures to be taken for some time? The Bedfordshire and Hertfordshire local medical committee wrote to me some time ago expressing its concerns that overseas nationals were coming here for expensive operations. It will be very pleased at what he has done today.

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend speaks wisely. NHS professionals on the front line have been conscious of the problem for a long time, but have been frustrated that nothing has been done. I therefore hope that they very much welcome today’s announcement.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Andrew Selous

Thursday 9th February 2012 Commons Chamber

[Andrew Selous (South West Bedfordshire) (Con)]

6. What steps he is taking to extend broadband coverage.

[The Secretary of State for Culture, Olympics, Media and Sport (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

Our plans for the roll-out of superfast broadband mean that—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. In the Thames Valley local enterprise partnership, which covers his constituency, the broadband plans are still at amber, rather than green, and I would be most grateful for his help in getting the three unitary authorities to work together to get those plans into a state where they can be approved. He rightly says that we need to be technology-neutral about this; fixed-line fibre will go into the ground in some areas, but for the more remote areas we will definitely need wireless solutions, be they mobile, wi-fi or satellite, and we will keep all options open.

[Andrew Selous]

Residents of villages such as Hockliffe, Stanbridge, Tilsworth and Eggington often have to make do with broadband speeds of only 1.5 megabits per second, which is very restrictive for local people and severely limits the ability of local businesses to grow. So when can residents in these villages expect things to get better for them?

[Mr Hunt]

Again, I ask for my hon. Friend’s help, because the plans for Bedfordshire are also amber-rated, rather than green-rated. We have said that we want all local authorities not only to start procurement for their broadband plans, but to complete procurement by this Christmas, otherwise we will consider taking back the funds that we have allocated and putting them in a national contract. We are very keen to ensure that roads start to be dug up and solutions actually happen by the start of next year.