Oral Answers to Questions

Nick Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 7th June 2011 Commons Chamber

[Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab)]

4. What steps he is considering in relation to Southern Cross Healthcare; and if he will make a statement.

[Nick Smith (Blaenau Gwent) (Lab)]

5. What steps he is considering in relation to Southern Cross Healthcare; and if he will make a statement.

[Sheila Gilmore (Edinburgh East) (Lab)]

8. What steps he is considering in relation to Southern Cross Healthcare; and if he will make a statement.

--- Later in debate ---

[Nick Smith]

Uncertainty about Southern Cross is troubling for the 74 residents of the two homes in Blaenau Gwent, and I commend my local authority on contacting their relatives to explain that it is monitoring the situation. If Southern Cross cuts its running costs, what measures will the Government put in place to ensure that the standards of care are closely monitored? Will the Government investigate the financial management of the company, described by my constituent Mr Hooper, whose mam is a Southern Cross resident, as

“greedy chancers who gamble with crazy business plans”?

[Paul Burstow]

The Government continue to maintain very close contact with the devolved Administrations on those issues to ensure that we co-ordinate in that way, and the hon. Gentleman is right that we need to make sure that the standards of care provided in all those homes are maintained. That is a role that the CQC has been discharging and will continue to discharge.