Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Huw Irranca-Davies

Tuesday 14th January 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

As so often, my right hon. Friend encourages us to raise our heads above the horizon and to look forward. He is absolutely right. There will be 1 million people with dementia by 2020 and, as he knows, most of those will have other long-term conditions alongside dementia. The name of the game will be looking after people so they can live healthily at home, which will be the focus of health policy.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

Regular social interaction and a comfortable home environment are critical to the health and physical and mental well-being of older people. Has the Secretary of State carried out any assessment across Government or within his own Department of the effect of cost of living pressures and cuts in local services on the home environment, and on older people?

[Mr Hunt]

We are very conscious of that, which is why we introduced the triple lock on pensions and protected pensioners from the brunt of the cuts that this Government, sadly, have had to make to deal with the deficit we inherited.

Hospital Mortality Rates

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Huw Irranca-Davies

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Of course I would be delighted to visit my hon. Friend’s local hospital. I am sure there will be a great deal that I can learn, and I hope I will be able to give encouragement to the staff there, who are working very hard in a very difficult situation. I hope today will give them encouragement that this is a Government who are determined to turn around their hospital.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

On the basis of the very good and welcome Keogh report and also the Francis recommendations on safe staffing levels, does the Secretary of State feel that the reduction of 4,000 nurses over the past two or three years is in any way contributing to the very issues that he has described today?

[Mr Hunt]

We welcome and accept the Francis report’s recommendations on safe staffing and we recognise that that involves having doctors. We recognise and are pleased that our protection of the NHS budget means that there are 6,000 more doctors than when the hon. Gentleman’s Government were in power. If he looks at what is happening in his own Wales, he might find that there are a few lessons that the NHS in Wales could learn.

Health and Social Care

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Huw Irranca-Davies

Monday 13th May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

There is currently a difficult environment for public finance, for which the hon. Gentleman’s party bears considerable responsibility. The Labour party has given up on the budget; it says it wants to cut the NHS budget. We say that these changes are possible without cutting the NHS budget and in dealing with the inefficiencies caused when care is not joined up. Taken together, the measures represent more progress in three years than the Labour party made in 13 years. They represent our determination to prepare the country for the consequences of an ageing population.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

The right hon. Gentleman knows that the cap on costs of care is a little way off the Dilnot proposals. How many weeks—surely his Department has made some calculations—would that involve for a typical older person before they reach the £72,000 cap?

[Mr Hunt]

The point of a cap is not that we expect everyone to have to pay £72,000 towards their care. First, through pension plans and insurance policies people can make provision so that they never have to pay that £72,000. Secondly, as part of the package, we are increasing the threshold, below which the Government help, to £118,000—much higher than it is currently—so that it will be available to help, I think, around 40,000 more people than are currently helped because of the level of the means-testing threshold.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Huw Irranca-Davies

Monday 21st June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Let me take this opportunity to thank the right hon. Lady for her outstanding contribution to the Olympic project to date. I hope that she will be able to continue to contribute as the project reaches its final two years. I must tell her, however—while expressing the greatest respect for her efforts—that although some elements of a sporting legacy were in place, we do not believe that enough was in place. I am thinking particularly of the creation of a sporting legacy in schools throughout the country. We very much hope that we will be able to work with the right hon. Lady to ensure that every child in every school in the country is able to be touched by, and be part of, the Olympic dream, not just in 2012 but in every year thereafter.

[Huw Irranca-Davies (Ogmore) (Lab)]

10. What recent discussions he has had with representatives of business organisations in Wales on measures to ensure a positive legacy for the private sector in Wales from the London 2012 Olympics.