NHS Major Incidents Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Mike Gapes
Main Page: Mike Gapes (The Independent Group for Change - Ilford South)Department Debates - View all Mike Gapes's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(9 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Mr Hunt
That is it, and that is why it is not working for the Opposition politically when they try to put the NHS centre stage. They can see people who downgraded or closed 12 A and E departments across the country during their time in office now coming to Prime Minister’s questions and trying to criticise this Government when similar things have happened. The answer on all these occasions is to put patients first, do the right thing for patients, be honest about the problems and sort them out, and that is what the Government are doing.
Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)
The hard-working and dedicated staff at Barking, Havering and Redbridge trust, at King George hospital in my constituency and Queen’s hospital in Romford, know, because their trust is in special measures, that there has been a lot of reputational damage. On 5 January, elective operations were cancelled—in my personal case, at two hours’ notice; I was not the only constituent who had to go through that—because of A and E pressures in the trust. Can the Secretary of State explain whether hospitals in special measures have a special requirement so that they do not need to declare that they are in the position of hospitals that have made the decision to say that there is a major incident, or is it just coincidental that although operations were cancelled on a large scale on 5 January no major incident was declared at Barking, Havering and Redbridge?
Mr Hunt
I can confirm that there is no difference in any guidelines issued for hospitals in special measures and for hospitals not in special measures. This is a good example of a trust with deep, pronounced problems over many years. There was a terrible tragedy in 2007, I think, when someone gave birth sitting on a toilet seat. This Government have said that we are going to tackle those problems and put the trust into special measures. It has more doctors and nurses: 230 more hospital nurses in the past four years in that trust. We are making a real difference—we have a new management team—and I think that things are beginning to get better in that trust in a way that has not been the case for many years. I hope that the hon. Gentleman would welcome that.