Oral Answers to Questions

Philippa Whitford Excerpts

Tuesday 5th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[George Freeman]

I pay tribute to the right hon. Gentleman. He is a Norfolk colleague and as Minister did a lot of work in this area. He raises an important point that as a society we need to think profoundly about how we integrate health and social care. As I say, the Government have made a £3.5 billion commitment from the new precept and the better care fund is a significant commitment, but he is right—we will have to go further. Through the devolution programme and the integration programme, we will have to develop more powers so that local health leaders and care council leaders can better integrate services to reduce unnecessary pressure.

[Dr Philippa Whitford (Central Ayrshire) (SNP)]

In Scotland, A&E performance is published weekly, but since June that in England has been published only every month and now after a six-week delay. Since that time, the performance in Scotland has risen and 96% of people were seen within four hours in Christmas week, which is a huge challenge, whereas the last data published for England were for October and show a figure below 90%. Do the Minister and the Secretary of State accept that to improve performance we need to return to more timeous and frequent analysis and publication?

[George Freeman]

I share the hon. Lady’s interest in data and in proper information. We need to be a little careful about Scottish figures. Over winter, England publishes three times more A&E performance measures than Scotland every week. We publish quality rankings on hospitals, care homes and GP surgeries, which Scotland does not. What we do not hear about in Scotland is A&E closures, A&E diverts, emergency admissions, general and acute beds—I could go on. It is dangerous to compare data that were not prepared on the same basis, but I share the hon. Lady’s enthusiasm, as does the Secretary of State, for information.

[Dr Whitford]

I am aware that the renewed strike call from junior doctors has actually been called in order to meet the new rules created by the Government’s own union laws and that negotiations are ongoing. To avoid an impact on hospital waiting times, what will the Secretary of State bring to the negotiating table to try to reassure junior doctors?

[George Freeman]

I am delighted to be able to announce—the hon. Lady might already have heard this—that the Secretary of State has appointed Sir David Dalton from Salford Royal to lead on that. I repeat the offer that the Secretary of State made this morning: we are very close to an agreement, so the right approach is not to strike, but to come to the table and reach it.