Debates between Kate Green and Matt Hancock during the 2019 Parliament

Mon 16th Mar 2020
Wed 11th Mar 2020
Mon 9th Mar 2020
Coronavirus
Commons Chamber
(Urgent Question)
Mon 27th Jan 2020
NHS Funding Bill
Commons Chamber

2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons & 2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons & 2nd reading

Covid-19 Response

Debate between Kate Green and Matt Hancock
Tuesday 2nd June 2020

(3 years, 10 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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Yes, of course, and I will get back to my hon. Friend.

Kate Green Portrait Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
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The Secretary of State will know of the exceptionally high rate of infection in the north-west and he will also be aware that local authorities such as mine say that the peak of demand for social care has not yet been reached and will actually hit later in the summer. In order to facilitate transparent information to the public and good capacity for local planning, will he commit to regular publication of the R value on a regional basis?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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We regularly publish the R value on a national basis and are increasing the scope of our surveillance testing regime to be able to increase the detail around that—that is one of the key tasks for the weeks ahead.

Covid-19

Debate between Kate Green and Matt Hancock
Monday 16th March 2020

(4 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right to raise such an important point. We need communities and people to come together to help out those who are badly affected by the virus. Of course, that means supporting charities to ensure that they can keep providing the sort of support that we were going to need in the weeks and months to come.

Kate Green Portrait Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
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If schools are to close—I appreciate that that is not the Government’s position currently—headteachers in my constituency have asked me to convey to the Government that a particular priority must be given to child safeguarding, and that this should also become the priority for Ofsted. Will the Secretary of State discuss that with the Schools Minister?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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I will. The hon. Member makes a very good point.

Coronavirus

Debate between Kate Green and Matt Hancock
Wednesday 11th March 2020

(4 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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Yes, of course. The funding needs for social care, as for the NHS, over the weeks and months to come are not yet clear, so the Chancellor set out an envelope of up to £5 billion to make sure that we can now plan according to what we need to do, with the resources constrained by what the nation has, especially in terms of people and trained people, as opposed to being limited by the funding. He also said that if we need even more than that, his door is open. I do not have a specific answer as to where all the money is going to be spent—as would be normal in a Government announcement of this kind—because we are in unprecedented circumstances. We will of course be transparent and clear about how the money has been spent. No doubt afterwards there will be a huge amount of looking into what happened to try to learn lessons, and the financial part will be one strand of that work.

Kate Green Portrait Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
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As more people become seriously unwell and need treatment in hospital, it will become very important that those who recover are discharged quickly back into the community. Will the Secretary of State say what work is being done to ensure smooth discharge pathways so that we do not get delayed discharges, which compound the problems for the NHS?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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This is a really important point that I met the NHS to discuss specifically today. It is critical that we ensure that discharges are as fast as possible. That is important in normal times, but when large proportions of those in hospital could, with the right support, leave hospital and be in a setting that works for them in social care, we have to make sure that that happens. The extra funding will help with that, but it is not all about funding; a lot of it is about co-ordination, and people are working at their level best to try to make that happen.

Coronavirus

Debate between Kate Green and Matt Hancock
Monday 9th March 2020

(4 years ago)

Commons Chamber
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.

Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.

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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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I am tempted to give my right hon. Friend a clinical answer, but instead I will ask one of the chief medical officer’s team to write to him.

Kate Green Portrait Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
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On Friday, I met the chief executive of my local council, where four cases have been identified. She told me that the council is not able to obtain information from Public Health England about where those four individuals are self-isolating, and that is a concern in managing community relations and information. Of course we appreciate the need to protect patient confidentiality, but will the Secretary of State discuss with colleagues the need for information to be shared with specific council officials, on a need-to-know basis, so that they can manage the protection of the whole public?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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Yes, absolutely. There should not be data protection problems here, but sometimes there are perceived to be, so cracking through those is important as well.

NHS Funding Bill

Debate between Kate Green and Matt Hancock
2nd reading & 2nd reading: House of Commons
Monday 27th January 2020

(4 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Kate Green Portrait Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
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A running theme throughout the Secretary of State’s speech has been an integrated approach to prevention and care. May I draw his attention to the need for dental care for cancer patients? There is no automatic route, as far as I can see, for oncologists to refer cancer patients for dental check-ups, and yet chemotherapy can have a deleterious effect on dental health, and patients also struggle to find NHS dentists due to a shortage of staff. Will the Secretary of State or one of his ministerial colleagues be willing to meet me to discuss that concern, which has been raised by my constituent Michelle Solak-Edwards, whose petition has been signed by many tens of thousands of others?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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Of course. The Under-Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Bury St Edmunds (Jo Churchill), is responsible for prevention and primary care, which covers both cancer and dentistry, so I hope that she will be able pull those two parts of the NHS together.

This Bill is short and straightforward. It represents certainty for the NHS about a minimum funding level over the next four years and certainty for the 1.4 million colleagues who work in our health service, so that they have the confidence and capability to deliver the long-term plan, safe in the knowledge that we will support them every step of the way. Frontline staff have helped to shape this shared vision of the future of healthcare in this country—more preventive, more high-tech, with more empowered people—giving the NHS the tools it needs to rise to the challenge of increasing demands from a growing and ageing population. Doing nothing is not an option, and neither is simply pouring money in without a plan that embraces innovation and improvement. The long-term plan has precisely those principles at its heart. A vote for this Bill is a vote to give our NHS colleagues the certainty and assurance they need. This Government backs our NHS, and my party is the party of the NHS.

Health and Social Care

Debate between Kate Green and Matt Hancock
Thursday 16th January 2020

(4 years, 2 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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The proposals that we are working on include solutions for the provision of social care for older and retired people as they decline in the later years of their lives, and for people of working age. Part of the point about consensus building is that we must be open to options and look right across the piece. It was a disappointment that the Labour party proposals that came out in the autumn only covered older people and not working-age adults, and that point must be addressed. I hope we can do that in a spirit of cross-party discussion, and that those on the Opposition Front Bench will engage positively with that. We will engage right across the House when trying to bring forward a solution.

Kate Green Portrait Kate Green (Stretford and Urmston) (Lab)
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A few moments ago the Secretary of State spoke about scaremongering. Has he had a chance to look at early-day motion 56, which highlights one group of patients who are scared? Pregnant migrant women face charges for their maternity care, and it is believed that two or three women might even have died as a result of their fear of going for treatment, because they did not know how to pay for it. Will the Secretary of State consider suspending those charges and conduct a proper review of the public health impact of that charging regime?

Matt Hancock Portrait Matt Hancock
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I will have a look at that early-day motion. This is an incredibly important subject that we must get right. Of course it is fair for those who use the NHS to make a contribution to it, and we have made changes to ensure that those who give birth get the support they need. The point I think the hon. Lady is making is not only about the exact details of the rules, but ensuring that people are not put off because of a concern about what the rules may be. I am very happy to take up that point. On social care, I hope we can reach a broad consensus.