Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 30th October 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We are very concerned about a number of the things that have been happening in the occupied territories. We will study that report extremely carefully. Indeed, we are talking closely to the Americans about their middle east peace plan, which we hope will be launched soon.

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

T4. What assessment have the Government made of extremely alarming reports of internment camps for Uyghur Muslims in China?

[Mr Hunt]

We look at those reports with a lot of concern. We had our own diplomats visiting the Xinjiang province in August and they concur that those reports are broadly accurate. I raised it with the Chinese Foreign Minister, Wang Yi, when I went to China and we continue to be extremely concerned about what is happening.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 7th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

May I gently tell the hon. Lady that I do not think our debates on the NHS are helped by her taking my comments out of context? I was quoting Chris Hopson, from NHS Providers, talking about a specific week when he said there were, in that week, a small number of incidents. We recognise the pressures across the NHS, which is why this Government are backing the NHS with record funding.

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

A small business in my constituency was driven out of business by slow payments for relatively small sums by NHS providers. Will he ensure strict compliance with the guidelines for timely payments?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 20th December 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

We do indeed have superb clinical leaders, such as Marianne Griffiths at Worthing, which was recently given an outstanding rating. We also have superb non-clinical leaders, such as David Dalton at Salford Royal. I would gently say to the right hon. Gentleman that if he is worried about funding, why did he stand in the election on a platform that would have seen the NHS have £1.3 billion less this year?

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

Will the Secretary of State ensure that clinical leaders are able to apply important techniques from other disciplines, such as lean production, which can drive up productivity?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Clinical leadership is important, but so is openness to the skills of other industries—particularly engineering skills, with which he is very familiar—that can help us to get processes right so that we improve care and safety for patients.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 10th May 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I can reassure the hon. Lady that we have been monitoring the situation closely and have provided extra capacity at the Royal Preston hospital. Her own Royal Lancaster infirmary has recently come out of special measures and done a really good job in turning round the quality of care after protracted difficulties. We continue to monitor the situation, and patient safety is our No. 1 priority.

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

Following centralisation and specialisation processes to drive up the quality of clinical care, we now have patients presenting at minor injuries units and urgent care centres with conditions that need to be treated elsewhere. Will my right hon. Friend take steps to ensure that those centres own the patients’ experience once they have presented, so that we never again have a patient with a serious illness being sent out to make their own way to A&E?

[Mr Hunt]

As ever on health matters, my hon. Friend speaks wisely. The fundamental issue is a high level of confusion about what happens to patients when they are faced with a bewildering choice about what to do when they have an urgent health need that needs resolving. They can call 111, try to get an urgent GP appointment, go to a walk-in centre, go to A&E and many other alternatives. We need to resolve that and make it simpler for patients so that they go to the right place first time. Urgent work is happening to ensure that we do that.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Monday 25th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Let me gently tell the hon. Lady the facts about what the contract involves. It involves the maximum number of hours that any junior doctor can be asked to work in any week coming down from 91 to 72. It involves reducing the number of nights and long days they can work, as we discussed earlier. It is a safer contract. The reason morale is low is that, rather than negotiating sensibly, the BMA has gone for an outright win, which was a very big mistake. We could have had a negotiated solution a long time ago. In that situation, a Health Secretary has to do what is right for patients, and that is what we are doing.

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

I have long found that the BMA is not universally admired by doctors, perhaps because of its long history of putting doctors’ interests ahead of patients’ interests. Will the Secretary of State ensure that he does not inadvertently drive doctors into the arms of the BMA, and will he look into adopting some of the old left ideas of mutuality, which would reconnect doctors to the interests of their patients?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend and I have discussed that recently, and I do think that the mutual structure is something we should be open-minded about. When junior doctors go on to the new contracts, which will happen in stages starting this August, they will find that it is safer and better and that they have more predictable shift patterns. It will enable them to have a better quality of life. Then they will realise just how badly represented they have been by the BMA.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 13th October 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Jeremy Hunt]

I will take no lessons on transparency from the Opposition. Professor Sir Brian Jarman said that the Department of Health under Labour was a “denial machine” when it came to the problems of Mid Staffs. We have made the NHS more transparent than ever before, and we will continue to practise transparency.

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

T6. What progress has been made towards the implementation of the Keogh review of urgent and emergency care?

[Mr Hunt]

We are making good progress and we expect to make a substantive announcement on that before the end of the year. That will be about improving the standard and the quality of care in A and E departments, which I know my hon. Friend has a great interest in, and removing the confusion that people feel about what precisely the NHS offer is in their area. It is looking good and I hope to have something to announce to the House before too long.

NHS Reform

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Thursday 16th July 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Let me tell the hon. Gentleman what the doctors and nurses working in our NHS hospitals see. They see 8,000 more hospital nurses on full-time contracts than when his party was in power, because we are doing something about the scandal of short-staffed wards that was left behind by his Government.

[Mr Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

Will my right hon. Friend ensure that neither the revalidation regime nor the NHS’s status as a near monopsony employer is allowed to promote anxiety among NHS staff who would otherwise wish to speak up? It is essential that they know they have that freedom and security.

[Mr Hunt]

As ever, my hon. Friend is spot on. At the heart of what I am saying today is creating a new learning culture inside the NHS where people are able to be open. In the airline industry, it is much easier for a junior pilot to talk to a senior pilot about a mistake they think the senior pilot has made without feeling it will impact on their career. We need to break down the barriers, so that when people talk about their concerns—even about what their boss has done, which is never easy—they are listened to and treated seriously, and there are no consequences as a result. We absolutely have to make that change.

Jimmy Savile (NHS Investigations)

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Thursday 26th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The report clearly says that every trust must have a named director who is responsible for safeguarding. One can draw one’s own conclusions about whether senior management knew or not. The report was unable to find evidence that that was the case, but nor did it say that it was not the case. One comes away with the clear suspicion that senior management may not have wanted to hear the things that they were being told because of Savile’s importance in fund raising and possibly his celebrity status. That is what we must make sure never happens again.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

With Stoke Mandeville serving my constituents, I was reassured to hear that in the present culture these appalling circumstances are not likely to be repeated. Can my right hon. Friend reassure me that it is now far more likely that we will see prosecutions within the lifetime of perpetrators rather than this horrific clean-up exercise after a perpetrator’s death?

[Mr Hunt]

I do believe that that is the case. I want to put it on record that Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, which includes Stoke Mandeville, has made huge progress in turning round and improving its culture. It came out of special measures last year and the staff and management are to be congratulated. His constituents can be confident that, although things are not perfect, huge progress has been made to improve standards.

Francis Report: Update and Response

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Wednesday 11th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

That is an interesting point and we should certainly reflect on it in the consultation. I am looking forward to visiting my hon. Friend’s trust in March. On many of the visits I have made to hospitals in special measures, which his hospital is not, I have met union representatives and they have an important contribution to make, because nine times out of 10 the real problem is that the people on the front line feel they are not being listened to, and when that is put right the other things start to be solved as well.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

As a former airworthiness engineer, may I strongly endorse my right hon. Friend’s direction of travel? Will he confirm that Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust, having exited special measures after the Keogh review, has enjoyed a fantastic transformation, which I believe he saw when he visited Wycombe hospital?

[Mr Hunt]

I had a fantastic visit there. This was a hospital that, putting it bluntly, was one of the worst in the country, and it is now on its way to becoming one of the best. The motivation and excitement not just of the management team but also the staff there, were palpable, and I think a huge number of good things are happening. What has worked there is the sense that what we are asking of the hospital is the same thing that they want to deliver for their patients—safe, compassionate care—and that must remain the focus.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 13th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I do take responsibility, but I hope the hon. Gentleman will be responsible in his campaigning in Hartlepool and welcome the extra doctors, extra nurses, extra operations and extra number of people seen within four hours in his constituency. It is a record of success, of which this Government are proud.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

As it becomes increasingly obvious that the public insist on receiving urgent care in a hospital setting, will the Government move to incentivise the delivery of a new generation of urgent care centre, as specified in the end of the phase 1 report on the urgent and emergency care review?

[Mr Hunt]

I have visited my hon. Friend’s local hospital. I commend him for his interest and I commend the hospital for the remarkable turnaround. From being a hospital in special measures, it has done extremely well. We want to implement the proposals in that review and we want also to make sure that for the oldest and frailest people there are alternatives that mean that they do not have to visit hospital.

Five Year Forward View

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Thursday 23rd October 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I think that is the kind of rhetoric that does the whole country a massive disservice. If the Government had the kind of views about the NHS that the hon. Gentleman talks about, we would not have protected its budget during the most difficult recession we have had since the second world war. We actually increased the NHS budget over that period, because we believe in the NHS. With regard to what he says about the report, the chief executive of NHS England, a former Labour special adviser, said this, and it is a fact: “Over the past five years, despite growing pressure, the NHS has been remarkably successful.” That is what Labour people are saying.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

I very much welcome the plans for urgent and emergency care set out on page 4, in paragraph 10, which ought to produce a solution that could be welcomed in Wycombe hospital and more than 20 similar hospitals across the country. When the proposals are taken forward, will my right hon. Friend ensure that they are explained to people in such a way that they can have real peace of mind that urgent and emergency care will be there for them?

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend, as ever, makes an important point. I do not think that we have been as good as we should have been in the NHS about explaining changes to urgent and emergency care, and people are understandably worried if they think that there is any risk that they will not be able to see a doctor in an emergency, which is what the NHS is there to do. I think that we now have a better blueprint for urgent and emergency care, but the report also recognises that it is not sustainable to say that all urgent and emergency care will always be dealt with in A and E departments. We have to find a way to improve the capacity of primary care and make it easier for people to see their GP so that we can reduce the pressure on hard-pressed A and Es.

Patient Safety

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Again, I am surprised that we do not have more agreement. If the hon. Lady looks at the figures, she will see that in the past year there have been 5,900 more nurses on our wards. Why does she not welcome that? We are using Salford Royal—a brilliant hospital that she knows well—to lead a safety campaign across the whole country to learn from the brilliant things that it is doing. I put a written statement before Parliament, and nothing I said this morning is not in the public domain. I would be delighted to come to the House any time to make an oral statement, and I notice that far more coalition MPs want to ask questions about safety and compassionate care than do Labour MPs.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

My right hon. Friend will remember some of the issues that I raised in the House about patient safety, and the Francis report, the Keogh review, and the new Care Quality Commission regime have made a material improvement. On Friday last week, Buckingham Healthcare NHS Trust was the second trust to emerge—at last—from special measures. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating that trust, and express the hope that that marks a new beginning about which we can be optimistic?

[Mr Hunt]

I would be delighted to do that. Incredible hard work by doctors, nurses and health care assistants on the front line of my hon. Friend’s local hospital has meant that the trust has come out of special measures, which the whole House should celebrate. Indeed, it was helped in that by Salford Royal, and one of the most encouraging things about the new special measures regime is that we are pairing up hospitals in difficulty with other hospitals that have a better record, and we are getting tremendous results.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 25th February 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The difference between donors to the Conservative party and donors to the Labour party is that our donors do not write our policies. While we are talking about private sector health care providers, I remind the hon. Gentleman of what an unnamed shadow Cabinet Minister told The Independent last week:

“We all remember when Andy was Health Secretary and happily contracting out bits of the NHS to the private sector… You have to ask yourself what’s changed.”

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

The NHS diagnostic centre in Wycombe, which is operated by the private sector, does a fantastic job. Will the Secretary of State join me in congratulating and thanking Opposition Members for all that they did to extend private and independent provision in the NHS?

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do that. My hon. Friend may be interested to know that in the last four years of the last Government, private sector contracts in the NHS doubled—something that this Government have not been able to match. It is important to look at the facts before we start any hares running with respect to privatisation.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 26th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I wish the hon. Lady had been as diligent in asking that question of Labour Ministers, who also handed back underspends to the Treasury when they were in power.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

Along with county colleagues, I wrote to the Secretary of State on this subject, because Buckinghamshire Healthcare NHS Trust is relatively underfunded compared with the rest of the country and it is in special measures following the Keogh review. Further to the answer that he gave to the earlier question, when can we expect the NHS England funding settlement to reflect more equitably the age of the public?

[Mr Hunt]

I commend my hon. Friend for the campaigning he does for high standards in his local trust. That has not been easy because, as he says, there have been a lot of problems there, although I hope he thinks that we are beginning to turn a corner. The decision on the funding allocations will be made by NHS England before Christmas, and the things that he says will, of course, be taken into account.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 22nd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

16. What steps he is taking to ensure that the NHS becomes a more patient-led organisation.

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

The big shift we need to make is to turn the NHS into a patient-led organisation. Two measures that will help that are: independent inspections by a new chief inspector that put the patient experience at their heart; and asking every NHS in-patient if they would recommend their treatment to a friend or member of their family.

[Steve Baker]

I am encouraged by that answer. Long ago, the medical establishment was held to account by what were essentially patient-led co-operatives, and today more and more voices are asking for more patient engagement. Will the Secretary of State consider a paper brought forward by Civitas and Anton Howes calling for the incremental implementation of patient-led commissioning to close this gap?

[Mr Hunt]

No one campaigns harder than my hon. Friend on the issue of putting patients first in his constituency and throughout the NHS. CCGs have a legal obligation to involve patients in decisions about services and about them personally. The ideas in the paper he mentions are interesting, and I respect them, but given that we have brand-new commissioners and inspectors going out this year, I think we should see how the current reforms work first.

Accident and Emergency Departments

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I thank the right hon. Gentleman for the interest and support that he shows for his local hospital. Of course, Mid Staffs has an extremely troubled history and it would be a derogation of my duties if I did not try to sort out the problems there once and for all, but we will not make any changes that have knock-on effects on neighbouring trusts without proper assessment and making sure that provisions are in place so that they can cope with any additional pressures. The final decision about what is going to be done has not been made, but I reassure the right hon. Gentleman on that point.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

The A and E crisis in Wycombe results from the closure of the department under the previous Government. Although I would love to lay the blame squarely on Labour, is not the truth that, over the life of the NHS, clinical practice and management have changed substantially? Will my right hon. Friend consider producing a White Paper that takes a holistic view of emergency and out-of-hours care so that we can have an A and E service that is fit for the 21st century?

Hospital Mortality Rates

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Tuesday 16th July 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to acknowledge that more money has gone to the front line as a result of the reorganisation that this Government have introduced. We have 8,000 more clinical staff now than when the Labour Government were in office.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

Walter Coles died because he was forgotten. Edward Maitland died because he was fed solid food. I could name others; those are just two of the patients who have died unnecessarily. And yet high mortality rates made it on to the board’s agenda in Buckinghamshire only because of a trigger relating to concern for reputational risk. The board had no robust risk management practices in place, and there were no plans to introduce any. Furthermore, certain key elements relating to changes in urgent care were missing. In setting out to champion patients, will my right hon. Friend set out how it will be possible to remove an entire board, or any members of a board who are not performing well?

[Mr Hunt]

Absolutely. I congratulate my hon. Friend on his extraordinary campaigning on behalf of his constituents. It is very difficult for a local Member to take on his own hospital when he finds failings, but he does it with great bravery. Yes, we need to ensure that the way we judge hospitals is not just about meeting waiting time and A and E targets, important though they are; it must also be about safety, about compassionate care and about governance. Other things matter as well. That is what we are changing.

Phone Hacking and the Media

Debate between Jeremy Hunt and Steve Baker

Monday 11th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman will be relieved to know that there is indeed a very important responsibility to ensure that everyone who holds a broadcasting licence is fit and proper. However, that is a responsibility not for politicians but for the independent regulator, Ofcom, which I know will discharge its responsibilities very carefully in that respect.

[Steve Baker (Wycombe) (Con)]

Do the Government agree with me that the best way to improve media plurality and break the excessive power that has led to such repulsive behaviour is to eliminate all barriers to entry into the media market?

[Mr Hunt]

We want to encourage investment in the UK media sector in any way we can. I have to admit that right now, how to do that has not been at the top of my mind, but I agree that we want to stimulate plurality. The arrival of the internet makes that possible in a much lower-cost way than would otherwise have been the case.