Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Julie Cooper

Tuesday 4th September 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Labour can be incredibly proud that Clement Attlee was responsible for setting up NATO in 1949. NATO has been supported by every single Labour leader since then—except the current one. It would be interesting to know whether the current shadow Foreign Secretary supports the current Labour leader or his predecessors.

[Julie Cooper (Burnley) (Lab)]

T4. I welcome the Secretary of State to his new role. I listened with interest to his comments about the plight of the Rohingya, but I am becoming impatient. It is now 12 months since the House heard of the massacre of 7,000 Rohingya people and the horrific circumstances that led to more than 700,000 having to flee into neighbouring Bangladesh. Will the Secretary of State assure me that he views the situation as a matter of urgency and that the British Government, as a former colonial leader in the region, will take a lead on the issue, so that in 12 months we will not be in the same position, listening to reports of genocide?

[Mr Hunt]

I absolutely give the hon. Lady those assurances, because it is vital not just for the Rohingya people but for people everywhere that countries with values such as ours take a firm stand when there is genocide.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Julie Cooper

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I understand the concerns that the hon. Lady raises; they have been raised by a number of Members. There are historical issues on the levels of rent charged by NHS Property Services, which frankly are not fair given the variation in charges to different GP practices across the country. I will be happy to look carefully into the issues she raises.

[Julie Cooper (Burnley) (Lab)]

The NHS has lost 1,300 full-time GP equivalents in the past two years and 200 GP partners during the same period. Given that 20% of the GP workforce is aged over 60, there is clearly a retirement time-bomb looming. What steps does the Secretary of State intend to take to address the growing workforce crisis in general practice? His efforts so far have failed and patients are waiting longer than ever for a surgery appointment.

[Mr Hunt]

I would respectfully say that the figures the hon. Lady has pointed out do not take account of locum doctors. None the less, there is a big problem and she is right to draw it to the attention of the House. What are we doing? I think there are two things. First, we need to encourage more medical school graduates to go into general practice as a specialty, and our objective is that half of all medical school graduates should choose general practice as their specialty. We are making good progress on that. [Interruption.] As she is saying to me, rightly, retention is also extremely important. That is why we are putting in place a number of programmes that will make it easier for GPs who want to work for a limited period of time to work flexibly, and potentially for people who have family responsibilities to work from home. We hope that those programmes will also make a difference.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Julie Cooper

Tuesday 21st March 2017 Commons Chamber

[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.

[Julie Cooper (Burnley) (Lab)]

GPs around the country are facing unprecedented pressures as they work to deliver the highest possible standards of care, despite underinvestment and increasing patient demand. A record number of GP practices closed in 2016. Are the Government really serious about addressing the problem for the sake of GPs and their patients? If so, why has the promised £16 million resilience fund not been delivered in full, when it was promised by October 2016? There is very little evidence to date of the Government delivering on any of their promises in “General Practice Forward View”, no sign of the extra £2.4 billion, no sign of—

[Mr Speaker]

Order. We have got the general drift. May I gently say to the hon. Lady that the longer the Opposition Front Benchers take, the less time there is for Back Benchers on both sides? This is becoming a worsening phenomenon. It is not only the fault of the hon. Lady, but it really must stop. It is not fair to Back-Bench Members.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Julie Cooper

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[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.

[Julie Cooper (Burnley) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State and the Minister will be aware that Capita has wreaked havoc in GP surgeries across the land, placing extra pressures on already overstretched NHS staff, compromising patient safety and breaching confidentiality. Last week, I met a group of practice managers who told me that some patient records have been missing for months, while others have turned up apparently half-eaten by mice. Given that this contract was introduced to save the NHS money, will the Minister tell us how much it is costing to rectify the mess and what steps she is taking to compensate GPs for the expenses they have incurred as a result of ill-conceived and poorly implemented contracts?