Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Mark Menzies and Dan Poulter(11 years, 8 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Dr Poulter
The hon. Lady and Opposition Members are fond of saying that we are cutting the NHS. It is their party that has said it will cut; they think it is irresponsible to increase funding for the NHS. We on the Government Benches have invested £12.5 billion more in the NHS. There are 6,000 more clinical staff working on the ground, focusing specifically on early intervention, early strategies and lifestyle. We now have almost 1,000 more health visitors working in the NHS and we have expanded the family nurse partnership programme. All these things will make a difference. Indeed, there is now a lot more joint commissioning between hospitals and primary care, to ensure that commissioning arrangements are in place better to support the role of community nurses and district nurses in preventive care and better look after people with long-term conditions.
Mark Menzies (Fylde) (Con)
6. What steps his Department plans to take to improve dementia diagnosis rates and to reduce regional variations in such diagnoses.