Oral Answers to Questions

Norman Lamb Excerpts

Tuesday 26th February 2013 Commons Chamber

[Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)]

12. What steps his Department is taking to increase the availability to patients of GPs and specialist health services.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

The Department of Health is currently working with key partners to support the increase of training numbers in general practice. From 1 April, the NHS Commissioning Board will be responsible for commissioning primary care medical services and specialised services. It will have a duty to commission those services in ways that improve quality and promote integrated care. Clinical commissioning groups will be responsible for commissioning most other services.

[Priti Patel]

The Minister is aware of the need to increase health care provision in Witham town. Can he reassure me that the appalling financial legacy of Mid Essex primary care trust will not hold back proposals to provide much-needed health care in the town?

[Norman Lamb]

I applaud my hon. Friend for repeatedly raising her constituents’ concerns about this subject. We have made it absolutely clear that primary care trusts must work closely with clinical commissioning groups to ensure that they meet the challenges of the current financial year. As for the future, the joint strategic needs assessment and the health and wellbeing boards will provide real accountability locally, and I think that my hon. Friend will be able to feed into that to ensure that her constituents are given the health services that they need.

[Alison Seabeck (Plymouth, Moor View) (Lab)]

The Limbless Association wrote to Members of Parliament this month expressing concerns about proposals for the commissioning of extremely specialist prosthetic services, which would reduce patient choice and oblige the patient to follow the money rather than vice versa, and would damage some highly skilled professionals in the field. When did the Minister last meet representatives of the Limbless Association, and will he agree to meet them with me?

[Norman Lamb]

I should be happy to meet the hon. Lady and members of the association to discuss those concerns further.

[Mr Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood) (Con)]

There is currently much talk about the importance of integrated services. Can my hon. Friend assure us that when commissioning primary care, the NHS Commissioning Board will emphasise the importance of integrating it with the other community health services supplied by the NHS, and that social care will be included in that fully integrated service?

[Norman Lamb]

I am happy to give my right hon. Friend an absolute assurance to that effect. The Department and I are working closely and collaboratively with both the Commissioning Board and the Local Government Association to ensure that we deliver integrated care, which is much the best way of keeping patients out of hospital and maintaining their condition.

[Fiona Mactaggart (Slough) (Lab)]

What is the Minister doing to ensure that there are enough GPs in areas with high, rapid population growth?

[Norman Lamb]

There are plans to increase the number of training places for GPs, with the aim of providing more than 3,000 extra places by 2015. That will fully meet the needs to which the hon. Lady has referred.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

13. What steps he has taken to support research on the most common causes of premature mortality.

--- Later in debate ---

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

14. What was the change in the level of spending in real terms on adult mental health services in 2011-12.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

It is the responsibility of local commissioners to ensure that resources are used effectively to meet the needs of their local populations. According to the national survey of investment in adult mental health services for 2011-12, cash investment rose between 2010-11, but real-terms investment fell by 1%.

[Paul Blomfield]

I will meet Sheffield Mind on Friday, and one of the issues we will be talking about is the impact of that fall in spending on crisis care. Mind’s research shows that crisis care teams are often under-resourced and overstretched, with four in 10 trusts having staffing levels below the Department’s own guidelines of 14 staff to 25 service users. Does the Minister think that is acceptable, and if not, what is he going to do about it?

[Norman Lamb]

The Government inherited an institutional bias against mental health in the NHS. [Interruption.] It is absolutely true; when the 18-week target was introduced, nothing was available for those suffering with mental health problems. Mental health patients did not benefit from choice that was introduced elsewhere in the NHS. I completely agree with the hon. Gentleman about the importance of crisis services, and the first NHS mandate has required the Commissioning Board to do work on the availability of mental health services and to ensure that we can introduce access standards so that mental health service users and patients benefit from the same rights as those with physical health problems.

[Patrick Mercer (Newark) (Con)]

First, may I thank you for your earlier guidance, Mr Speaker?

May I thank the Department for its approach to the ravages to which Newark health care has been subjected, principally by the last Government, and thank the Minister for his forthcoming visit to Newark and assure him that mental health care services, which have been diminished in Newark, will certainly be top of the agenda?

[Norman Lamb]

The Minister who will visit Newark is, in fact, my hon. Friend the Member for Central Suffolk and North Ipswich (Dr Poulter), but I am grateful to my hon. Friend the Member for Newark (Patrick Mercer) for raising this issue and for highlighting the importance of mental health care. The mandate makes it very clear that the Commissioning Board and the NHS must make measurable progress towards achieving parity of esteem by 2015.

[Alun Cairns (Vale of Glamorgan) (Con)]

15. What recent estimate he has made of the potential savings to the NHS of making better use of technology.

--- Later in debate ---

[Graeme Morrice (Livingston) (Lab)]

T10. What steps is the Secretary of State taking to prevent the fragmenting of the national health service through a massive reorganisation that is costing £3 billion, diverting much-needed resources from the front line?

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Norman Lamb)]

The truth is that the Government inherited a completely fragmented NHS; we had managed institutionally to separate health care from social care, mental health from physical health and primary care from secondary care. At the heart of the legislation we have already passed and the proposed social care legislation, which we hope to introduce very soon, is the principle of integrated care. I am determined that that should be central in every area of the country so that we deliver proper care and avoid crises, keeping people out of hospital.

[Mr Adrian Sanders (Torbay) (LD)]

T5. The South Devon and Torbay clinical commissioning group is building on the integrated health and social care system for which many have praised the area. Will the Minister help complete the integration by assisting with the inclusion of mental health care services within the regime?

[Norman Lamb]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question and applaud the brilliant work that has been done in Torbay. There has been a reduction in hospital admissions because they care for people better. As I said in my last answer, it is essential that we integrate mental health in the system as well as physical health so that we give people proper care.

--- Later in debate ---

[Mr Speaker]

I think the hon. Gentleman was seeking an Adjournment debate and is disguising his request as a question, for which we are grateful.

[Norman Lamb]

I thank my hon. Friend for that question. I am happy to discuss it further with him. Value-based pricing will be primarily for new drugs, but obviously I understand his concern. It is the concern of the Government to ensure good access to cancer drugs for patients in the future.

[Kerry McCarthy (Bristol East) (Lab)]

Recent comprehensive research by the international study of asthma and allergies in childhood found strong evidence of a link between fast food and asthma, but when I asked the Minister which public health responsibility deal partners he had discussed that with, he said that evaluating science was not within their remit. Does he agree that if the fast food companies have the kudos of being classed as public health responsibility deal partners, they ought to look into such research and actually take some responsibility?

--- Later in debate ---

[Helen Goodman (Bishop Auckland) (Lab)]

Every year 18,000 epileptic fits are triggered by video games and screen-based activity. Can the ministerial team tell us what research is being done on that and what discussions they have had with the industry to make video games safer and improve the labelling?

[Norman Lamb]

I would be happy to look into that further. I recognise the significant concern that the hon. Lady raises. Often the diagnosis of epilepsy is not good enough and there needs to be much better co-ordinated care. The issue that she raises is important and I am happy to look into it further.

[Andrew George (St Ives) (LD)]

In spite of my right hon. Friend’s earlier comments, I am afraid that the regulation that implements section 75 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 does not maintain the assurances previously given and risks creating an NHS that is driven more by private pocket than concern for patient care. Will the Secretary of State please withdraw that regulation and take it back to the drawing board?

[Norman Lamb]

We are looking at this extremely seriously. Clear assurances were given in the other place during the passage of the legislation, and it is important that they are complied with in the regulations.

[Several hon. Members]

rose—