Sri Lanka

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 23rd April 2019 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am absolutely happy to give that assurance. The high commission has been supporting the Nicholson family and will continue to support other families. I think the whole House has been touched, moved, shocked and saddened by what happened to that family, but also uplifted by the generosity of Mr Nicholson’s response to an unspeakable personal tragedy.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Change UK)]

May I begin by thanking the Foreign Secretary and the shadow Foreign Secretary for what they said? Unfortunately, this will not be the worst day we will have to talk about, because this Daesh death cult and its local affiliates will continue to carry out these kinds of atrocities globally. We must always say that this will not change our behaviour, it will not change our values and it will not change our solidarity with the people of Sri Lanka or elsewhere. We will stand resolutely with them in trying to get to the people who have done this and to stop other attacks.

[Mr Hunt]

I thank the hon. Gentleman for his strong and powerful words as a former Chair of the Foreign Affairs Committee. I can only agree with everything he said. I think other countries around the world look to this country because of our, sadly, extensive experience in fighting terrorism here. They look to us for expertise, and they look to us to say and do the right thing in these terrible situations.

Yemen

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 19th December 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I join Members who have praised the work of our diplomats and Ministers, and those from other countries, who have made this welcome but limited step possible? The Foreign Secretary referred to the political framework that he hopes will be discussed in January. He also mentioned, but did not go into detail on, the idea of a Government of national unity. Is it not a fact that the complexities of Yemen mean that there are not just two sides? Is any thought going into how to engage people in the south and other parts of Yemen in this process, because otherwise a Government of national unity will not work?

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman has a lot of experience of this from his time on the Foreign Affairs Committee. He is absolutely right. A Government of national unity has to cover the whole country. It has to give confidence to the Houthis that despite being a minority, their rights are going to be respected, but it also has to give confidence to all minorities, so I agree with him.

NHS Long-Term Plan

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 18th June 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Of course I agree with that. My hon. Friend campaigns extremely vigorously on behalf of his own hospital in Cheltenham. Recruitment will be one of our top priorities. One way we want to tackle that is very simply by giving hope to people in the NHS and to people thinking of going into medicine that there is a long-term plan that has the support of the NHS, and which is at one remove from the party politics that we always get around the NHS. I think that is something doctors and nurses overwhelmingly want.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

How much of this welcome additional money will be used simply to pay off accumulated debt and current deficits, and how much will be a real increase?

[Mr Hunt]

The think-tanks who pore over the numbers disagree on that. Some say that it is about enough to stabilise the current situation—that is what Paul Johnson of the IFS says—and others say there is enough room to transform. Who is proved right will depend on how much we do on productivity and efficiency to create the headroom for the real changes we all want to see. That is why we have to get that bit of the equation right.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 8th May 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

1. What steps he is taking to improve access to social care for people living with unmet social care needs.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Mr Jeremy Hunt)]

The health and social care systems are inextricably linked, which is why we need to improve access to the social care system, and we will be setting out plans to do so in a Green Paper.

[Mike Gapes]

Age UK says that 1.2 million older people have unmet social care needs. Is it not time that we thought about integration in a practical way, and where we have acute hospitals with land next to them, such as King George Hospital in my constituency, we start to build sheltered accommodation or intermediate care on those sites so that people can easily be transferred into and out of the beds, freeing them up for other people who need them?

[Mr Hunt]

That is a wise suggestion, and it is exactly the direction of our thinking in the social care Green Paper, which will have a significant chapter on housing. Integration is not just about integrating health and social care; it is also about other services offered by local authorities. I commend, too, the hon. Gentleman’s local authority of Redbridge: it is No. 1 in the country for user satisfaction with the social care system and No. 4 for carer satisfaction.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 19th December 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for his campaigning, and I am delighted that the Budget allocated an extra £2.4 million to help Kettering General Hospital. He is absolutely right that urgent care centres play a vital role in keeping people away from busy A&E departments. We need to be better at signposting the public so that they know when to go to a GP surgery, when to go to an urgent care centre and when to go to a hospital.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

One of the causes of pressure in my part of London is the continuing threat of impending closure to King George Hospital’s A&E. Will the Secretary of State today confirm that the consultation that is now being engaged in will result in the A&E at King George Hospital being saved?

[Mr Hunt]

I am afraid that the hon. Gentleman will have to wait until the result of that consultation is published. I visited the trust last week, although I went to the Romford end of it, and I think that it is making great strides in improving the quality of care. I congratulate all the staff at the trust on what they are achieving.

NHS Shared Business Services

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 27th February 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend speaks wisely. Many members of the public will be faintly amused to hear Labour Members say how important it is that we move to electronic health records. The NHS IT project was an absolute catastrophe, costing billions of pounds. The intention was right but the delivery was wrong, and that is what we are trying to sort out.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

I understand that large numbers of patients in north-east London were affected by this failure of the service. How many of my constituents were affected, how many of them were cancer patients, and how many would have been subjected therefore to an inordinate delay in receiving referrals for treatment? Can the Secretary of State give that itemised breakdown to all Members of Parliament who will have constituents affected by this?

[Mr Hunt]

I am very happy to write to hon. Members in the areas affected with any extra information that we are able to provide. However, I reassure the hon. Gentleman that to date we have not been able to identify any patient in any part of the country who has come to harm as a result of what happened.

Mental Health and NHS Performance

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 9th January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is right on both counts. We need to look carefully at where the tier system is not working, and that should be part of our work on the Green Paper that the Prime Minister announced this morning. It is unacceptable for people to be told that they are not sick enough to get the care they urgently need. All the things we have announced and intend to announce to improve mental health will fail if we do not get the recruitment and training of new staff right. Along with the commitment we are making today to invest more in mental health must come some important strategic workforce planning, which I hope will benefit my hon. Friend’s constituents.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Secretary of State referred to temporary assistance being given to distressed trusts, but is there not a more fundamental ticking time bomb in the form of the sustainability and transformation plans? I draw his attention to the debate I led on 16 December on the north-east London plan, which envisages a deficit of £578 million by 2021 and says that on a “business as usual” case model, with normal-type reductions and savings, there will still be a £240 million gap. That will mean poorer services. There is no capital provision for the closure of the King George hospital A&E and its re-provisioning at Queen’s hospital. Will he look into this matter urgently? There is going to be a massive crisis in my area unless urgent steps are taken to provide more resources.

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to look into that issue. I take this opportunity to pay tribute to the staff of both Queen’s and King George hospital, who have not only done very well over the winter but have made great progress in turning around the trust, which, as the hon. Gentleman knows, is in special measures. We are hopeful that it might be able to come out of special measures at some stage this year under its new leadership, but that is obviously a decision for the CQC.

Junior Doctors Contracts

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 18th April 2016 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. Part of the hallmark of this Government’s approach to the NHS has to be honesty about where we have too many avoidable deaths, and where there is the weekend effect for people admitted to hospital at the weekends. We have a big responsibility in that regard. The reason why we discharge that responsibility is that we believe in the NHS. We want the NHS to be the safest, highest-quality system in the world. Just as this Government have pioneered reforms that have dramatically improved the quality of state education, so too we need equal reforms in the NHS. That is why it is absolutely right to say that we have to focus on these things and debate them in this House. We should not automatically say that there is someone who must be blamed when we are dealing with these difficult situations. Unfortunately, one of the things that has led to feelings running high in this dispute has been the sense of blame being tossed around, when what the Government want to do is try to solve the problem.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

May I tell the Secretary of State about my admission to hospital in the early hours of a Saturday morning? I spent five and a half weeks in intensive care. I had many conversations with doctors during the time I was in St Mary’s hospital, Paddington. I ask him to look at the circumstances of those doctors today, as they do work weekends. We do have a weekend NHS. It is not true to say that the lives of people like me who are admitted at the weekend are not saved, because it is the doctors who make it possible for us to survive. Will he stop talking down the medical profession and start defending the doctors?

[Mr Hunt]

With respect, that precisely encapsulates the problem. The hon. Gentleman has interpreted the fact that I want to do something about excess mortality rates, which mean that a person admitted at the weekend has an 11% to 15% higher chance of death than if they were admitted in the week—that is proven in a very comprehensive study—as an attack on the medical profession. Nothing could be further from the truth. It was actually the medical profession—the royal colleges and Professor Sir Bruce Keogh—that first pointed out this problem of the weekend effect. We are simply doing something about it.

NHS Major Incidents

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 28th January 2015 Commons Chamber

[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.

Special Measures Regime

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 16th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am happy to do that. I agree with the right hon. Gentleman. I would like to see a lot more innovation. Even in the best care homes, which deliver good care by today’s standards, there is room for much more innovation and imagination in seeing how we can make people’s last years ones that they really enjoy. I have seen some amazing dementia care homes that break the mould. I am very happy to look at the work of that organisation. I am sure that there is a lot we can all learn.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

The Secretary of State said that 16 trusts are in special measures, but he mentioned only 11 of them. As he knows, Barking, Havering and Redbridge University Hospitals NHS Trust includes King George hospital in my constituency. Will he take this opportunity to explain why he has not said anything about that trust? Is it because the plans to close the A and E this year or next year are in total disarray, but he does not want to admit it publicly? Will he take this opportunity to clarify—yes or no—whether it is still his intention that King George hospital’s accident and emergency will close?

[Mr Hunt]

First, let me reassure the hon. Gentleman on the last point. The trust has made it absolutely clear that the change in A and E will not happen until it is safe. It is very unlikely that it will happen in the near or medium term. The reason I did not mention his trust is that the statement was about the 11 trusts that were put into special measures exactly a year ago and his trust was not put into special measures until just before Christmas. It, too, is making progress. It has employed 31 additional nurses, it has an excellent chief nurse, whom I have met on a number of occasions, it has had a new chief executive since April and there is an increase in patient satisfaction. However, there is still a long way to go because it is a very challenged trust with some deep-seated problems. We need to support it at every step of the way.

Health

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Monday 9th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I am aware of those shocking figures, and I am also aware that the Royal College of Surgeons says that 152 people died on waiting lists in Wales at just two hospitals because they did not get their treatment in time. I gently suggest to the shadow Health Secretary that the Labour party might want to fix what is going on in Wales if it is really serious about patient care, because how Labour is running the NHS in Wales is an absolute disgrace.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

Perhaps the hon. Gentleman would like to look at the facts relating to the actual cost of the reorganisation. The net saving as a result of it has been more than £1 billion a year, and we are now employing 7,000 more doctors and 3,000 more nurses than when his party was in office. Last year, as a result of this programme—

[Mike Gapes]

rose—

[Mr Hunt]

I am going to make some progress.

Last year, as a result of this programme, this Government put 15 trusts—

[Mike Gapes]

rose—

[Mr Hunt]

This might not be something the Opposition agree with, but they should listen. I need to tell the House that we have put 10% of all acute trusts into special measures, and that in each and every one of them the warning signs were there under the last Government. The George Eliot hospital, for example, had one of the worst mortality rates in the country back in 2005. Tameside had to pay £9 million compensation for mistakes in just two years, and at the Queen’s hospital in Romford in 2006, a lady gave birth in a toilet, leading to the tragic death of her child.

[Mr Hunt]

The hon. Gentleman mentioned to me earlier that he was going to raise that point. I will look closely at the issue, as it sounds like an extremely important one.

I want to look at what has changed under this Government. One of the trusts that has been in special measures is the Basildon and Thurrock University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust. When the right hon. Member for Leigh was in office, inspectors at the hospital found blood stains on floors and curtains, blood spattered on trays used to carry equipment, and badly soiled mattresses. When the Care Quality Commission published those findings, it was allegedly leant on to tone down its press release. This Government put Basildon into special measures, and it now has 183 more nursing staff. I asked one of those nurses what the difference was. She said:

“It’s very simple. When we raised a concern before, they weren’t interested. Now, they listen to us.”

It gives me great pleasure to inform the House that the chief inspector of hospitals has today recommended that Basildon should be the first trust to exit special measures, and that Monitor has ratified that decision. The hospital has received an overall rating of “good” and has been praised for its excellent leadership. The chief inspector found that the trust had made significant improvements in a number of areas, including maternity services, which were rated as “outstanding”—[Interruption.] The Opposition might not care about what is happening at a trust in special measures, but we on this side of the House do.

[Mike Gapes]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker. The Secretary of State knows very well the issue I am trying to raise, because I raised it during the business statement last week. I want him to respond to an important fact. A leaflet was circulated in my borough on 20 May, two days before polling day. It was quoted in the local papers, and it related to the A and E department at King George hospital in my constituency. I simply want to ask him to confirm whether the announcement from the Secretary of State for Health referred to in the leaflet was made with his authority, or by him, during the week before polling day.

[Mr Speaker]

The hon. Gentleman is an ingenious and indefatigable Member. He probably knows that I can best describe that as an attempted point of order, because it is not a matter for the Chair. That said—[Interruption.] Order. That said, the hon. Gentleman has made his point forcefully, and it would certainly not be in any way disorderly for the Secretary of State to respond to it if he wished to do so.

[Mr Hunt]

I am most happy to respond to what—I agree with you, Mr Speaker—is a thinly disguised point of order. I will happily say this: what I said was completely in order because I was simply restating information publicly available on the trust’s website.

I want to go back to talk about Basildon hospital, because of the remarkable turnaround there. Chief executive, Clare Panniker, and her team deserve huge credit for the changes that they have made, which will truly turn a corner for patients who depend on their services.

[Mike Gapes]

On a point of order, Mr Speaker.

Accident and Emergency

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Wednesday 18th December 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

rose—

[Mr Hunt]

I am going to make some progress.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend raises an important point. Again, we would not hear this from the Opposition spokesman, but ambulance services across the country are making great strides. For example, in the past year there has been a 10% increase in the number of patients that ambulance services do not take to A and Es, and an 8% increase in the number of patients that ambulance services and paramedics are able to treat and discharge on the spot. Those kinds of things can make a huge difference.

[Mike Gapes]

rose—

[Mr Hunt]

I am going to make some progress.

I want to move on to what we have been doing. As I said, every Health Secretary deals with difficult winters in the NHS. However, this year is different because we have taken unprecedented steps to relieve the pressure in the short and the long term. For this winter, we have distributed more financial help—£400 million in total—than ever before. So far, that money has paid for 2,900 additional staff, 1,100 more hospital beds, and 1,200 more community beds. It has also paid for additional support for ambulance services and 111 centres. We distributed that money earlier than ever before. [Interruption.] The hon. Member for Copeland (Mr Reed) says that we should not have cut the money in the first place. We did not—we protected and increased the NHS budget, which the shadow Health Secretary still wants to cut, as he reaffirmed today and on Monday. We distributed the money in August, earlier than ever before. We extended the winter flu campaign to two and three-year-olds. Patients who require emergency treatment this winter can be assured that they are getting high-quality and speedy care despite the pressure that we all recognise A and E departments are under.

We have gone further. This year, we have started to tackle the root causes of the long-term pressures in A and E, which are the result of the ageing population, yes, but also, sadly, the disastrous mistakes made by the previous Government, including the 2004 GP contract changes and the 48-hour GP appointment target that did not work.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. This year we have extended flu jabs to two and three-year-olds because we think that prevention is better than cure.

We have been looking at other causes of the long-term pressure on A and E, such as Labour’s 2004 GP contract. The right hon. Gentleman spent the past year telling this House that that contract, which scrapped named GPs, has nothing to do with the problems in A and E. This is despite what nearly every A and E department in the country is talking about—namely, the pressure being caused by poor primary care alternatives, particularly for the frail elderly. What did he tell Sarah Montague on the “Today” programme when we reversed that GP contract and brought back named GPs for the over-75s? He conceded to her, as he never has in this House, that our changes which reversed that contract would help A and E, so he is finally accepting on the radio what he does not accept in this House and what A and E staff have been saying for months—that having someone in the community responsible for frail elderly will help.

[Mike Gapes]

rose—

[Clive Efford (Eltham) (Lab)]

rose—

[Mr Hunt]

I am going to make some progress.

Our plans go much further than simply reversing the 2004 contract. GPs will offer the most vulnerable guaranteed same-day telephone consultations, which never happened under Labour. There will be a dedicated telephone line so that A and E doctors, ambulance paramedics and others can get advice from GPs about treatment in urgent situations. GPs will co-ordinate care for elderly patients discharged from A and E to try to ensure they get proper wrap-around care to minimise the chance of needing to go back.

We have done something else that the right hon. Member for Leigh never did to tackle long-term pressure on A and E. One of the biggest problems has been not being able to discharge people from hospital because of poor links between the health and social care systems. Through our £3.8 billion better care fund, this Government are doing something that Labour talked about a lot but never actually delivered: we are merging the health and social care systems. Gone will be people being pushed from pillar to post, because in order to access this fund, clinical commissioning groups and local authorities will have to commit to joint commissioning and joint provision.

Finally, we have looked at the long-term structure of A and E. The previous Government were battered by a succession of failed reconfigurations. We, too, have had challenges over decisions, such as those with regard to Lewisham. Sir Bruce Keogh’s recent review of urgent and emergency care has changed the terms of this debate by setting out a 21st-centruy vision of emergency care. Sir Bruce rightly said there should be more extensive services outside hospital, and this, too, will help to reduce A and E queues. He rightly said that while the number of A and Es is not expected to change, the services offered by all of them should not be identical if we are to maximise the number of lives saved. Our duty to patients is to make that a reality and we will not hesitate to drive that vision forward.

A and E and the ambulance services are performing well under unprecedented pressure. I cannot speak highly enough of the hard-working staff who are working around the clock to deliver vital services. They share our overriding commitment to putting patients first this winter. Unlike Labour Members, we do not seek to turn a tough winter into a political football. If they want to make the comparison between our record and theirs, we are happy to do so: more people being seen within four hours, shorter waiting times, and long-term problems being tackled—not posturing from the Opposition, but action from the Government, and a commitment to do what it takes to support hard-working front-line staff over Christmas. We should get behind them and not undermine their efforts.

[Mike Gapes]

On a point of order, Madam Deputy Speaker. This information was embargoed until two o’clock today, but following an investigation the Care Quality Commission has put King George hospital Ilford and Queen’s hospital Romford into special measures. I tried several times to intervene on the Secretary of State in order to raise the matter, but he refused to take an intervention from me. I therefore seek your advice: how can I draw attention to the matter and the fact that the previous Secretary of State said that King George’s A and E department would close within two years? That is clearly not happening. There is chaos in my local A and Es, yet the Secretary of State did not let me intervene.

A and E Departments

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 21st May 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Because, I am afraid, the Labour party is completely failing to take responsibility for some catastrophically bad decisions that it made when it was in power. Labour Members might want to talk not only to people such as the King’s Fund, but to their own constituents, who say that traditional family doctoring is something they would like to see return.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

How does the decision to close the A and E unit at King George hospital in Ilford, which was taken by the Secretary of State’s predecessor, who is sitting next to him, and confirmed by him recently, help to take the pressure off Queen’s hospital in Romford?

[Mr Hunt]

As the hon. Gentleman knows, the decision has been taken, but the A and E department has not been closed and will not be closed until it is clinically safe to do so.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Mike Gapes and Jeremy Hunt

Tuesday 15th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

My hon. Friend makes a very important point, putting his finger on a key issue: the 24-hour availability of GP services. That is going to be crucial as the NHS goes forward. The NHS medical director, Bruce Keogh, is looking at the whole issue of seven-day working in the NHS and will certainly be examining what flexibility needs to be given to local areas to make that possible.

[Mike Gapes (Ilford South) (Lab/Co-op)]

T4. On 30 December, ambulances in north-east London were diverted from the Whipps Cross, Queen’s and Homerton hospitals, with only the accident and emergency units at the Royal London hospital and the King George hospital in Ilford being open. Last week, on 8 January, Queen’s hospital in Romford was again diverting ambulances. Will the new Secretary of State look at the decision of his predecessor, whom I see on the Bench near him, and cancel the insane decision to close the accident and emergency unit at King George hospital?

[Mr Hunt]

The decision has been taken, but we have made it absolutely clear that we will not proceed with implementing it until there is sufficient capacity in the area, particularly at Queen’s hospital in Romford, to cope with any additional pressures caused by it, and that undertaking remains.