Wuhan Coronavirus

Debate between Matt Hancock and Alex Chalk

Tuesday 11th February 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

This is a really good point, and I want to make two points on it. First, those who have contracted the virus are ill and deserve our sympathy and support. I know from the incredible way they have responded to the need to undertake contact tracing that all those in the UK who we have been working with because they have tested positive have acted in an exemplary way and done everything that society could have asked of them to make sure the virus is contained. I pay tribute to the way they have responded to public health officials and the NHS and thank them for doing that.

On a second connected point, anybody who thinks it appropriate, in response to this challenge, to demonise or abuse anybody from the British-Chinese community, or anybody of Chinese or east Asian origin, is completely wrong and is being counter-productive to the efforts being made across the country and the world to tackle this virus.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

I thank the Secretary of State for his measured statement. Does he agree that we should not allow our proper focus on the risk from coronavirus to blunt our efforts in respect of seasonal flu, which, as the chief medical officer indicated, kills around 8,000 people a year? In those circumstances, the precautions taken—handwashing and observing basic hygiene—are important for all sorts of good reasons.

[Matt Hancock]

It is absolutely true that handwashing and “catch it, bin it, kill it” are the right responses to flu as well as coronavirus. We are coming towards the end of the traditional flu season, which this year in England came early, in December, and thus far—touch wood—has thankfully been largely mitigated and gone away. Next year, of course, we will be even more vigilant than normal.

The National Health Service

Debate between Matt Hancock and Alex Chalk

Wednesday 23rd October 2019 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I will tell the House exactly what happened. My hon. Friend invited me to Burton, and I looked at the changes that needed to happen. I talked to the NHS and we then announced not one but two upgrades as a result, thanks to his campaigning.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

Gloucestershire health managers, supported by around £50 million of public money, are in the process of reconfiguring hospital services in Gloucestershire. In the light of evidence suggesting that A&E in Cheltenham might be earmarked for closure, I, together with my hon. Friends the Members for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson) and for The Cotswolds (Sir Geoffrey Clifton-Brown), have led a campaign to keep A&E at Cheltenham. I know that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has taken a close interest in this issue. Can he now give us an update from the Dispatch Box on the issue, which is so important to me, my constituents, my hon. Friends and, indeed, everyone in Gloucestershire?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, I can. In the light of the extensive representations that my hon. Friend made regarding the A&E in Cheltenham, I have spoken to the chief executive of Gloucestershire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and I can announce that the A&E will remain open and that no proposals to close the A&E at Cheltenham will be part of the forthcoming consultation.

NHS Long-Term Plan: Implementation

Debate between Matt Hancock and Alex Chalk

Monday 1st July 2019 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The statement was about the implementation of the NHS long-term plan, to which of course the future of social care is vital, which is one reason why the spending power available within social care has risen by more than 10% over the past three years. We continue to work on the long-term future of social care. We will have to wait for a new Prime Minister before publishing the Green Paper—I think that is fairly obvious—but it would also be good to get a bit of cross-party collaboration. When my right hon. Friend the Member for Ashford (Damian Green) made some proposals that were in line with the cross-party work of two Select Committees of this House, within half an hour the shadow Secretary of State’s friend, the shadow Chancellor, had rubbished the idea—I do not think he took the time even to read it. We could do with a bit of cross-party work on the future of social care in this country.

[Alex Chalk (Cheltenham) (Con)]

Thanks to the record funding boost for the NHS, Cheltenham General Hospital can plan for the future with confidence, but local trust managers consistently cite difficulties with recruiting emergency medicine doctors as a reason for not being able to expand A&E provision. Does the Secretary of State agree that some of the additional resources must go into training additional A&E doctors so that we can give Cheltenham General Hospital the resources it requires?