NHS (Five Year Forward View)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and James Morris

Monday 1st December 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The training may have started under Labour, but if we do not have enough money in the NHS budget, we cannot pay for these doctors and nurses. We can do that because we took a decision, bitterly opposed by Labour, to disband the primary care trusts and the strategic health authorities and to lose 21,000 administrators so that we could pay for 10,000 extra doctors and nurses, including in Coventry.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

The achievement of parity of esteem between mental and physical health in the NHS is absolutely fundamental to its future. As the Secretary of State will know, the Government have a reasonably good record on moving towards parity of esteem. Does he agree that we need not only more investment in mental health services, but, more importantly, better commissioning and a change of culture towards viewing patients as a single whole?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend has campaigned incredibly hard on this issue. I totally agree that the key aspect is a change in the approach of commissioners. People with mental health needs often have physical health needs and different needs relating to gambling and alcohol addictions, for example, that are connected to their mental health problems. Unless all these issues are tackled together, we are unlikely to make progress. We are very proud to have enshrined in legislation parity of esteem as something that we must achieve in the NHS. Today’s announcement will help this to go further.

Patient Safety

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and James Morris

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is absolutely true. A number of initiatives are taking place, and I welcome them. The involvement of universities can help us to understand some of these very difficult issues. This is uncharted territory for the NHS, because nowhere else in the world are we seeing the rigour with which we are going about our task. I think that we should be open about anyone who can contribute to the debate.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

I welcome the Secretary of State’s focus on transparency and accountability. He is right to draw attention to the positive steps that the Government have taken in regard to mental health services in the last four years, but given our aspiration to secure parity of esteem between mental and physical health in the NHS, and our need to drive up mental health care standards throughout the country, should we not extend the transparency and accountability measures that he has announced to those services?

[Mr Hunt]

I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s campaigning on mental health issues, which has done a huge amount to raise the profile of the subject. Let me reassure him that the information that we are publishing on the website today includes staffing data for all the mental health trusts. We completely recognise the parity issue, at least in what we are doing today.

NHS

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and James Morris

Wednesday 5th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We on the Government Benches will take absolutely no lessons about transparency in the NHS from Labour after what it did for so many years. I think what we are introducing is a huge step forward, because for the first time every hospital in the country will, as a minimum, have to publish their ward-by-ward staffing ratios every single month. They can publish more—they can do what Salford does—but for every hospital in the country to do that every month is a huge step forward.

[James Morris (Halesowen and Rowley Regis) (Con)]

The Secretary of State talks about finding alternatives to people presenting at A and E. May I commend Rowley Regis hospital in my constituency, which has just opened a GP-led primary care assessment centre in order to deal with people in the community—in a community setting—rather than having to refer to A and E? That hospital used to have five in-patient wards, but they were closed by the Labour party and the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) when he was Secretary of State. However, three of them have been reopened in the past three years, which is a substantial new investment in a very important community hospital.

[Mr Hunt]

I commend what is happening; it is very important that locally driven solutions are providing good alternatives to going to A and E. One of the most important things we can do for my hon. Friend’s constituents is make sure we have proper continuity of care so that for our most vulnerable patients there is a doctor who knows what is up with them at any time, whether they are in or out of hospital, and who can give them joined-up care and make sure they have a proper care plan wrapped around them. That is the kind of care we need to see.