Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Tuesday 4th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Hodeidah opening is crucial; it is also important to get access to the Red sea mills, which have enough wheat to feed 3.6 million people. The fighting has lessened, but it has still not stopped, which is why we need these peace talks to succeed.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

Fifty wounded Houthi rebels are to be flown from Yemen to Oman. Does my right hon. Friend agree that that flight on a UN plane for treatment is at least a good sign of good will in advance of the peace talks and that we should pay tribute to all those involved and be hopeful for the future?

[Mr Hunt]

Yes, my hon. Friend is absolutely right. That was one of the conditions that the Houthis made for their participation in the talks in Stockholm, and the Saudi agreement to do so was actually announced when I was in Riyadh a few weeks ago.

NHS Long-Term Plan

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Monday 18th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are doing that work in parallel to the Green Paper, but the hon. Lady is absolutely right to highlight it.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, we take deprivation into account very seriously when we allocate NHS funding, because it has a direct impact on people’s demand for NHS services, but other things also have an impact on people’s health, such as housing and employment prospects. The bigger lesson is that we need to integrate all our services for our most disadvantaged citizens.

[Matt Warman]

rose—

Breast Cancer Screening

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Wednesday 2nd May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely. There are basically two parts to this process. One is what the problem was with the original procurement, and the other is the problem with the assurance of the project over the time period.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

I welcome the compassionate tone of the Opposition spokesman and the Secretary of State, and I particularly welcome the fact that he personally said sorry. Will he do all that he can to ensure that faith is restored in such technologies, because they do an awful lot of good when they work?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. One of the most important ways of getting that change in mindset is by giving patients more control. Later this year, we will be offering all NHS patients an app through which they can access their medical record, and that should start to become a way in which people take control of their healthcare destiny, including such things as invitations to screenings for all cancers and many other public health measures.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Tuesday 14th November 2017 Commons Chamber

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

Recruitment and retention is just one reason why United Lincolnshire Hospitals Trust is currently going through the special measures process. Will the Secretary of State join me in paying tribute to the staff in Lincolnshire, and does he agree that part of the challenge that the trust faces on recruitment and retention will be solved by the establishment of a medical school in Lincolnshire?

[Mr Hunt]

If I may say so, that question was absolutely beautifully put. I do congratulate the staff. I have met the staff of Lincoln hospital, although I have not been to all the hospitals in the trust, and it is very nice to see the hon. Member for Lincoln (Ms Lee) in her place. Wherever the new medical schools eventually end up, one of the key priorities will be their ability to get more doctors from areas where we are struggling to recruit.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Tuesday 4th July 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

There is a lot of merit in the opt-out system that has been developed in Wales for some time and is now happening in Scotland. We are looking closely at the evidence, but we have a lot of sympathy with this. If the system does lead to an increase in organ donations, it is certainly something we would want to pursue here.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

T6. One-year cancer survival rates are now at a record high of 70%, but does the Minister agree that we should and can go further by improving early diagnosis and screening?

Mental Health and NHS Performance

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Monday 9th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady is right to say that we need better alternatives to A&E for people such as her constituent. Sometimes those do not exist, but one thing we need to do is make sure that people who call 111 and need to speak to a clinician can do so quickly. One thing we have piloted successfully in other parts of the country is better GP supervision of people in care homes, who are sometimes the most vulnerable patients. We are looking at all these things, but on the broad direction of travel she is right to say that we need to find a better way forward for people such as her constituent.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

In sparsely populated rural Lincolnshire, vital reforms of health and social care risk being undermined by the performance of East Midlands ambulance service. Our police and crime commissioner says that his officers are routinely acting, in effect, as ambulance drivers. I know the Secretary of State understands the problems we face in rural Lincolnshire, but does he agree that, as currently constituted, East Midlands ambulance service is not serving the rural parts of its area as well as its staff want to and as well as my constituents need it to?

[Mr Hunt]

As we discussed earlier when my hon. Friend the Member for Gainsborough (Sir Edward Leigh) spoke, there are places where the service that the ambulance service provides to rural areas is not as good as it should be, sometimes because of the perverse incentives relating to how the targets work. I have been nervous about changing the targets, because that can sometimes be taken as a signal to relax and I am absolutely determined that we should meet the current targets, but I did make a commitment to him that I would look into this issue and I will do so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Tuesday 15th November 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

What I can tell the hon. Lady—who, I know, rightly campaigns hard on mental health—is that we are treating 1,400 more people in our mental health services every day than we did in 2010, and we will be treating a million more people every year when we have implemented the taskforce report. We are investing more, and we are making good progress.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

Shared care allows GPs to provide complex prescriptions for drugs such as methotrexate, but in my constituency the Beacon surgery recently withdrew from those arrangements. Can the Secretary of State assure me that the Department will support not only patients who now face potentially longer round trips, but GPs themselves, so that they can continue to provide those vital services?

NHS Funding

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Monday 31st October 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I just do not agree with the hon. Gentleman. I stand by the numbers. I am afraid that, on this occasion, the Health Committee got its numbers wrong. The figure of £10 billion did not come from the Government; it was a figure that the NHS said that it needed. In fact, it needed less than £10 billion and we are delivering more than was asked for—something that the Labour party was not prepared to do.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

The Secretary of State has taken an interest in the rurality and sparsity that hospitals in Lincolnshire wrestle with. Will he confirm that it is because this Government are spending half a trillion pounds on the NHS over the course of this Parliament that workers and patients at Pilgrim hospital, for example, can be confident about the hospital’s future?

[Mr Hunt]

All NHS facilities in my hon. Friend’s constituency and across the country can be confident that the NHS has a bright future. In fact, if we are to deliver the NHS plan, more rural and remote places are precisely where we must pay most attention to keeping people healthy and well in their homes. That is why not only community hospitals, but GP surgeries and all the places upon which rural communities depend are a vital part of the NHS’s future.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Matt Warman

Tuesday 5th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Lady cannot have it both ways. She cannot stand here and criticise cuts in nurse training but oppose the Government’s changes that mean we will be able to train 10,000 more nurses over the course of this Parliament. Let me tell her why there are 8,500 more nurses in our hospital wards since I became Health Secretary. It is because of the Francis inquiry into Mid Staffs. It is this Government that recognise the importance of good nursing in our wards. We did not sweep the problems under the carpet. She should give us credit where it is due.

[Matt Warman (Boston and Skegness) (Con)]

T7. In Boston in my constituency, as many as one in four children are classified as obese. Will the Minister reassure me that in the forthcoming obesity strategy, the Government will acknowledge that they are allowing families and, indeed, children the opportunity to take the control of their own lifestyles that will fix this problem, rather than seeking to do it for them?