Stoma Care

Debate between Paul Burstow and Glyn Davies

Wednesday 25th January 2012 Westminster Hall

[Glyn Davies]

Will the Minister give way?

[Paul Burstow]

Let me develop my point a tad further and then I will be more than happy to give way to my hon. Friend, although I hope to ensure that I conclude answering the questions of my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff North.

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. As part of the reforms that the Government are introducing, we need to ensure that we close the loopholes that the previous Government left gaping in their legislation. We also need to ensure that, as a Government, we have transparency and clear rules under which people operate, so that we see competition as a servant of the patient’s interest and not as an end in itself. That is absolutely integral to those reforms.

[Glyn Davies]

I simply wish to say how shocked I was to discover the arrangements nearly 10 years ago, when I was given a colostomy nurse of my own. I was making the very point that my hon. Friend the Member for Cardiff North (Jonathan Evans) made—that by pushing the matter, I was threatening the future of the service in that particular hospital. If we try to address what is a legitimate concern, we must have a guarantee that there will be funding, so that we do not have a repetition of the Scottish experience.

[Paul Burstow]

That is a very succinct summary of the case that our hon. Friend has made in his Adjournment debate today.

Let me say something about prescribing arrangements because it may help if I set out the arrangements for these products or appliances, as they are usually called, in terms of the NHS in England. Prescribers operating under the NHS primary medical care contracts are able to prescribe as appropriate for their patients those stoma and neurology appliances listed in part IX of the drug tariff. There should be no barriers to prescribing a stoma product on the NHS, as long as it is listed in part IX of the drug tariff. NHS dispensing contractors, pharmacies, dispensing appliance contractors and dispensing doctors are able to dispense prescriptions of these products. Primary care trusts are responsible for ensuring that general practitioners are complying with their primary medical care contractual arrangements and that dispensers are complying with their contractual frameworks. Within that, there is a set of checks already in place to deal with the prescribing practices of GPs.

Southern Cross Care Homes

Debate between Paul Burstow and Glyn Davies

Tuesday 12th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Burstow]

I note that the hon. Gentleman seems to be a bit like a stuck record, repeating the point that he made last time. The reality is that the Government are taking the necessary steps, are exercising their responsibilities correctly and are making others responsible and accountable for discharging their legal responsibilities as well. What the hon. Gentleman left out from his question was any suggestion of what specific powers his Government put in place that would have allowed us to deal with this issue. There are no such powers.

[Glyn Davies (Montgomeryshire) (Con)]

Does the Minister feel that there would be value in considering the financial regulation of care homes and the care home sector so that this sort of situation does not occur again in future?

[Paul Burstow]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. I hope that we can learn the necessary lessons about what regulation should exist at the national level and what powers are in place for regulators to intervene in these circumstances. The reality is that the regulatory powers that this Government inherited from the previous Government are next to non-existent. That is one reason why hon. Members have been able to drag Ministers to account, as has been said, before the House. What we have said as a result is that as we work to produce the White Paper, we will address these issues to make sure that we have a system in place.