Priti Patel
Main Page: Priti Patel (Conservative - Witham)Department Debates - View all Priti Patel's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(10 years ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
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Norman Lamb
Unacceptable standards of care must be condemned and challenged wherever they occur, whether in the private, public or voluntary sector. Mid Staffordshire hospital was an NHS hospital, yet awful things happened. We must be intolerant of abuse or neglect wherever it happens. On local authorities—the shadow Minister raised this point—we have the power to require the Care Quality Commission to inspect on specific issues, including where there are concerns about the commissioning of care. It is important that those powers are there to be used.
Priti Patel (Witham) (Con)
The BBC shone a spotlight in its programme on the practices of specific care homes. What message can my hon. Friend give to people whose vulnerable family members have been in those homes and treated so appallingly? What level of reassurance can he give those families that their safeguarding is being taken care of and that this abuse will stop?
Norman Lamb
The way I would put it is that we owe it to those families to demonstrate that we are taking effective action to address the very serious concerns they have raised. All the steps the Government are taking, which I have outlined this morning, will go a long way to eradicating such behaviour. Where it does occur—there will always be bad apples in any system—there must be real consequences not only for that individual care worker, but for a company that allowed such things to happen in the first place.