Oral Answers to Questions

Liz Kendall Excerpts

Tuesday 11th June 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes an important point. Talk to any A and E department in the country, and they will say that poor alternatives in the primary care sector are one of the things that are driving the pressures on them. It is important that we look at the structures put in place by the 2004 GP contract to see whether they are the right way to provide the care we need to give to older people.

[Liz Kendall (Leicester West) (Lab)]

Last week, the Select Committee on Health took expert evidence on the increased pressures in emergency departments and the causes of the worst A and E crisis in a decade. On Wednesday, the Chair of the Committee told this House that the 2004 GP contract

“is not why those pressures exist.”—[Official Report, 5 June 2013; Vol. 563, c. 1605.]

Will the Secretary of State tell us whether the right hon. Member for Charnwood (Mr Dorrell) is wrong?

[Mr Hunt]

I advise the hon. Lady to listen more carefully to what the Chair of the Select Committee said. He actually said that he agreed with much of what I said on the GP contract. While the Opposition are defending the status quo of the 2004 contract, independent support for reforming primary care is coming from the College of Emergency Medicine, the Royal College of Physicians, the NHS Alliance, the Family Doctor Association and even the head of the Royal College of General Practitioners.