Covid-19 Update

Robert Largan Excerpts

Monday 17th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

On the contrary, the proposed reforms set out in the White Paper, which have come from the NHS itself, will help to deal with the backlog. They will help to make sure that the NHS is ready for the rest of the 21st century. They have been welcomed by the Health and Social Care Committee, and I am grateful to that Committee for its report last week, which welcomed those reforms while asking for further detail on a couple of other areas, which we will work with the Committee on.

I urge the hon. Lady to speak to her colleagues in the local NHS, and ask them whether they think that collaboration is the way forward; whether we should have greater interoperability; and whether we should have greater integration on the ground, and get rid of a load of the bureaucracy that is currently there in law. If she is not persuaded by her local NHS, by me or by the Select Committee, perhaps she should speak to her own Front Benchers, who also welcomed the reforms.

[Robert Largan (High Peak) (Con)]

As of last week, over 82,000 doses of the covid vaccine have been administered across the High Peak. It is an amazing achievement and I put on my record my thanks again to everyone who has made that possible. I urge the Health Secretary to focus on doing surge vaccinations and surge testing in those areas with growing numbers of new cases to put us in the best possible position, so that we can get rid of any remaining restrictions as soon as possible.

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, this is our planned approach. I am glad to say that the number of cases across the High Peak is very, very low. I am also glad to see that the vaccination rates across the whole of Derbyshire are really high—I was in Derbyshire just before the elections, and the rates are high and there is huge enthusiasm behind the project. I pay tribute to my hon. Friend’s work in making sure that that is what has happened.