Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 1st April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I will tell the right hon. Gentleman what is not an April fool—the appalling care at Mid Staffs on his watch. If he is talking about how the NHS is doing, perhaps, for once, Labour Members should look at what patients are saying. I know that it is difficult, but if we look at what patients say, we see that since the election, there has been a 5% increase in those who think that their NHS care is safe, and a 10% increase in those who think that they will be treated with dignity and respect in the NHS under the coalition. We are proud of that, because we are putting patients before politics, which the right hon. Gentleman never does.

[Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

3. How many staff have been made redundant and subsequently re-employed by NHS organisations since May 2010.

[Pat Glass (North West Durham) (Lab)]

10. How many staff have been made redundant and subsequently re-employed by NHS organisations since May 2010.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter)]

Since May 2010 and up to December 2013, 4,050 staff across the whole NHS have been re-employed in the NHS following redundancy. This covers all staff grades, not just managers, and is a tiny proportion of the total NHS work force of currently around 1.2 million.

[Mr Spellar]

May I thank the Minister for that utterly complacent answer? Is it not outrageous that, while front-line health service staff are having their salaries frozen, the fat cats at the top are getting monstrous pay-outs and then being re-employed straight away elsewhere in the NHS?

[Dr Poulter]

The Opposition will have to do better than these prepared questions. We have been lumbered with their redundancy terms, which were negotiated when the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham) was a Minister in the Department of Health.

On NHS pay, we believe in having enough front-line staff to care for patients. That is the lesson of Mid Staffs. What the previous Government would have done—and the Opposition would have us do—is give some staff in the NHS two pay rises, not just one. That is unacceptable. We need to have enough staff to ensure that we can look after patients. All staff in the NHS will receive a pay rise of at least 1%, but unfortunately, because of the terms that the previous Government set, some managers are still treated better than patients. We will change that.

Business of the House

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Thursday 6th September 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend, and I will raise that issue. I know that people feel strongly that service personnel who serve this country should be treated with the greatest respect and honoured as a consequence. My colleagues at the Ministry of Defence will want to reply to him on that matter.

[Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

May I also welcome the Leader of the House to his new position? I should like to take him back to his previous incarnation as Health Secretary. Is he as shocked as I was to find out how much typing work is now being outsourced abroad by hospitals? My freedom of information request has revealed that West Middlesex outsourced 230,000 letters in one year, that Whittington outsourced 90,000, that Epsom outsourced 11,000 in a quarter, and that Kingston outsourced 17,000 in a pilot. Medical secretaries are being laid off as a result. May we have a debate so that the Secretary of State for Health can justify taking away British jobs from British workers?

[Mr Lansley]

I will of course raise that issue with the Department of Health on the right hon. Gentleman’s behalf, but he might also like to raise it himself in the pre-recess Adjournment debate, which will give Members the opportunity to mention issues of that kind. I was interested to see, in my own constituency a few years ago, that Addenbrooke’s—a major hospital—had outsourced activities of that kind, but that it brought them back to this country as a consequence of seeing the quality of service that could be delivered here.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

I share the hon. Gentleman’s concern. The NHS operating framework that the Government published last December makes it abundantly clear that primary care trusts need to work with their local authorities and care organisations to agree a budget and, where possible, to pool it so that it can be provided to individuals to enable them to get respite in the way that suits them best. I will certainly be pursuing this through the Government’s normal assurance processes to ensure that these things happen through the operating framework, but the hon. Gentleman might also want to invite his local overview and scrutiny committee to call to account local commissioners for the way in which they are behaving at the moment.

[Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

T3. NHS West Midlands is cutting nurse training next year by a fifth and predicting a reduction of 7.25% over five years in the qualifying work force—not bureaucrats, but nurses—thereby denying youngsters in this country training for a worthwhile profession and career. Is not this a scandal and a shambles, and what is the Minister going to do about it?

[Mr Lansley]

The right hon. Gentleman may not know this, but following representations made directly to me I have looked at this very carefully. The strategic health authority is currently responsible for the number of nursing commissions that it undertakes. It has assessed the number of commissions that it should undertake based on its future work force requirements and has reached the conclusion that it is indeed reducing the number of commissions in the west midlands. That is not true to the same extent in other strategic health authorities across the country. In the listening exercise conducted by the NHS Future Forum, further recommendations were made about how we can reform education and training, and we will be taking those forward to try to ensure that there is greater collective understanding of work force requirements.

Oral Answers to Questions

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

I am grateful to the hon. Lady for highlighting that issue. I think that Members in all parts of the House experience the same frustration from time to time when they feel that they are unable to discharge their responsibilities on behalf of constituents and obtain the information that they think they need in order to do that job. I will certainly undertake to examine the issue again. Patient confidentiality is complex and we must respect the confidentiality of individual patients, but we should not let that get in the way of ensuring that good-quality care is delivered.

[Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

T8. When I asked the Minister about Southern Cross on 2 December, he replied:“The responsibility for providing or arranging publicly supported residential accommodation under section 21 of the National Assistance Act 1948 rests with councils with adult social services (CASSRs), not the Department. Any discussions regarding continuing provision for residents of care homes should take place between care providers and CASSRs.” —[Official Report, 2 December 2010; Vol. 519, c. 1014W.]Does the Minister now regret that complacent and wholly inadequate reply, which lost vital months in which the crisis could have been dealt with?

[Paul Burstow]

No, because it was an accurate statement of the legal position, which is what the question required.

Since these issues became a cause for concern many months ago, the Department of Health has been very much engaged with them at both official and ministerial level. We have also ensured that all parties—the local authorities, the Care Quality Commission and others—are clear about their responsibilities. I should have thought that that was what the hon. Gentleman would expect us to do, and it is what we have done. We are ready for any eventuality.

Swine Flu

Lord Spellar Excerpts

Monday 10th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I will of course write to my hon. Friend about the nature of the advice provided by the joint committee, but we follow and have followed at each stage the advice given to us by that independent expert committee, the Joint Committee on Vaccination and Immunisation. I will certainly write to him to explain how it has determined the at-risk groups for these purposes.

[Mr John Spellar (Warley) (Lab)]

Earlier, the Secretary of State made the astonishing admission that he has done nothing since the Labour Government left office. He rightly drew attention to the work being done for at-risk groups. However, emergency planning requires the sustaining of the emergency services. Why is he not giving priority to those who work for the emergency services—the police, the fire and ambulance services?

[Mr Lansley]

I have two points for the right hon. Gentleman. First, all NHS staff, including ambulance staff, are eligible for the vaccine. Regrettably, when I last looked, under 20% had availed themselves of that opportunity. I wish that it were higher.