Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and John Baron

Tuesday 24th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are putting more resources into Halton. In fact, we are putting more resources into the NHS across the country. We are carrying out 21,000 more diagnostic tests, including cancer tests, every year compared with four years ago, and I hope that that is something the hon. Gentleman will welcome.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

The all-party group on cancer and the wider cancer community have commended the Government on introducing the one-year survival rates for cancer into the delivery dashboard from April of this year as a means of driving forward earlier diagnosis. But what can the Secretary of State tell us about the work that is being undertaken to ensure that the levers of accountability are in place to push under-performing clinical commissioning groups into raising their standards on behalf of patients?

[Mr Hunt]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his understanding of the importance of transparency. He will welcome the fact that we are now saving 1,000 more lives a month as a result of focusing on the five-year survival rates. But that transparency must apply to CCGs as well, and discussions are ongoing with NHS England as to the best way to do that for lots of things, including cancer.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and John Baron

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.

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

Almost a year ago, following the Keogh report, we put 11 NHS trusts into special measures, the first time such a large number of trusts have been put into special measures. Yesterday I was pleased to report to the House that the first trust, Basildon, has come out of special measures. I am pleased to tell the House today that across all the trusts in special measures, an additional 1,202 nurses and an additional 118 doctors have been recruited. The programme is making good progress, and the whole House will want to commend the efforts of all the staff in those hospitals on the tremendous efforts they are making.

[Mr Baron]

I join the Secretary of State in commending the management and all the staff of Basildon hospital for their excellent work and a great team effort. The hospital is now no doubt on an upward trajectory. I should like to raise with him the matter of the human papilloma virus vaccination programme for young women. It has been a success, and there is mounting evidence that is should be extended to young men. Will the Government now look into the feasibility of doing that?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right, and I am grateful to him for mentioning how proud we are of the HPV vaccination programme for girls and women. It is one of the best in the world, and we are getting an 86% take-up rate among eligible 12 to 13-year-old girls. He is also right to say that we now need to look at whether the programme should be extended to men and boys. A decision was taken at the time that it did not need to be, but we are now reviewing that decision. We will shortly be getting advice from the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation—which, as he will know, gives us independent advice on these matters—and we will take its advice seriously.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and John Baron

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

As I said in response to an earlier question, the responsibility to be transparent about care should apply equally in the public and the private sector. Obviously, in the public sector we have more levers, because we are purchasing care and we can impose more conditions than it is possible to do in the private sector. The most important thing is to have a culture in which such problems come to light quickly when they happen, so that they are dealt with and not repeated.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

15. For what reasons the publication of data on one-year and five-year survival rates for all cancers within the Clinical Commissioning Group Outcomes Indicator Set has been deferred until March 2014.

Hospital Mortality Rates

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and John Baron

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Staffing levels are indeed one of the issues that contribute to poor care, if we get them wrong. That is why we are committed to implementing the Francis recommendations on safe staffing levels, and why, having protected and increased the NHS budget—contrary to what the shadow Secretary of State wanted—we now have 6,000 additional doctors working in the NHS. [Interruption.] In these individual cases, if staffing levels are the issue, they will be addressed.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

The Secretary of State has been absolutely right to highlight and pursue past failures for the benefit of future patients. That includes investigating why the regulatory system seems to have failed in these cases. Does he agree, however, that we must not allow the report to overshadow much of the good work that is being done in our hospitals, including Basildon hospital which now has new management and is instigating changes?

[Mr Hunt]

I agree with that. One reason why it is so important to reform the regulatory structures that we inherited is that they tried to identify only poor care—not terribly successfully—when we need a system that identifies outstanding care as well. We need such a system for the benefit of the general reputation of the NHS and the morale of the service. We also need one so that a failing hospital can have an organisation on which it can model itself, just as a failing school can model itself on a school that has received an outstanding Ofsted report. That provides a solution to the problem: we identify a problem transparently and we sort it out.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and John Baron

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are investing £34 million in cardiovascular research. Much excellent work is being done at, in particular, the Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, which will help us to make great strides.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

19. It is widely accepted that late diagnosis of cancer makes for premature mortality. Will the Government recommend the inclusion of proxy measures such as staging and accident and emergency admissions in the outcomes indicator set, as a way of complementing the one and five-year survival measures? That would give us a more complete picture of how CCGs are performing in encouraging earlier diagnosis.

[Mr Hunt]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his campaigning. No sooner do we agree to the inclusion of one indicator in relation to early cancer diagnosis than he finds another that should also be included.

I will certainly consider the issue that my hon. Friend has raised, but I think that there is a broader question about the role of GPs. They should see themselves as being in the front line when it comes to early diagnosis of not just people who walk through the doors of their surgeries, but people in their communities who are at high risk. That is a much more fundamental change that we need to think about.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

I am aware how concerned people are throughout north-west London about the proposals. If the matter is referred to me by Ealing council, I will indeed ask the independent reconfiguration panel for its independent view on the proposals.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

T9. The cancer drugs fund has been a huge success and has helped up to 25,000 patients, but the negotiations between the Government and the pharmaceutical companies on its replacement—value-based pricing—is causing real uncertainty for cancer patients and clinicians alike. For example, will new medicines be available to new patients under the new system and what guidance is being given to local cancer drugs funds as they wind down? Can we please have clarity urgently?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and John Baron

Tuesday 15th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I know that the hon. Lady spoke very movingly in the debate on dementia last week and I wholeheartedly agree with her. The medicines available for people with dementia do not help everyone, but we do not know that until we try them. By diagnosing only 42% of people with dementia, as is currently the case, we are denying nearly two thirds of dementia sufferers the chance to see whether they could benefit from those medicines and, as she rightly says, the chance to plan their care, which could mean that they could live at home for much longer.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

The all-party group on cancer is delighted that the one and five-year cancer survival indicators have been included in the CCG outcome indicator set. We have campaigned for that in the belief that it will drive forward earlier diagnosis, as the Secretary of State knows. Can he clarify how CCGs will be held to account through that indicator set? For example, what action will be taken on underperforming CCGs?

[Mr Hunt]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on his campaigning on cancer issues through the all-party group. The NHS Commissioning Board is held to account through the mandate, which clearly states that we must make tangible progress towards having the lowest mortality rates in Europe for cancer and a number of other major diseases. I will expect the board to clamp down hard on CCGs who fail to deliver on what needs to happen for them to deliver on that promise.

NHS Commissioning Board (Mandate)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and John Baron

Tuesday 13th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Any such examples are totally unacceptable. The rights that people have to the treatment they need clinically are enshrined in the NHS constitution. There will always be a need for MPs and other campaigners to highlight problems in the system, but we hope to make it much easier by exposing unacceptably low levels of clinical care much earlier than happens currently. As a result of the changes in the next two years we will see the NHS becoming the most transparent health care system of any in the world, which we hope will enable us to identify failures before they lead to the kind of tragedy the right hon. Gentleman mentions.

[Mr John Baron (Basildon and Billericay) (Con)]

I understand that the Government are adding the one and five-year indicators for all cancers to existing indicators in the NHS outcomes framework. That is very welcome. It will particularly help those with rarer cancers, and the all-party group on cancer has long lobbied for it. Will the Government work towards ensuring that the commissioning outcomes framework, which measures clinical commissioning groups, mirrors those one and five-year indicators, which are terribly important in encouraging earlier diagnosis so that we have coherent policies at the national and local level?

[Mr Hunt]

May I thank my hon. Friend for his work campaigning on cancer? He is absolutely right. We want to make sure that we pick up rarer cancers, so we are moving towards a composite indicator for cancers with the one and five-year measures. He is absolutely right that, properly to drive improvement, we need to compare not just hospital and consultant-led teams, but local GP-led commissioning groups, so that where there are successful outcomes everyone knows that. To get that comparison to work, we have to ensure that we compare the demographics. Part of the work we are doing is to understand how we can meaningfully compare CCGs, so that the public can truly understand who is doing best and who needs to do better.