Health and Care Bill

Debate between Robert Neill and Matt Hancock

Report stage
Monday 22nd November 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock (West Suffolk) (Con)]

rose—

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)]

rose—

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Robert Neill and Matt Hancock

Monday 14th June 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Lady shakes her head, but it is a matter of fact that supply has been the rate-limiting factor throughout. We will do everything we can to support vaccination using the doses that we have. As she well knows, the UK, thankfully, is right at the front of the global race to get vaccinated, and that is because we bought early in very large bulk. Of course, we have worked to make that supply as big as possible as fast as possible. We go as fast as we can, but we cannot go faster than we can.

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con) [V]]

Thank you for calling me, Mr Speaker, and for what you have said tonight as well.

Has my right hon. Friend not recognised that just a few weeks—or “a little longer” in the Prime Minister’s parlance—make the difference between survival or closure for some businesses? Will he recognise therefore that forcing businesses to remain closed for a further period without financial support being extended for the same period is unjust, unconscionable and unsupportable? Will he take that back to the Chancellor and the Prime Minister, please?

[Matt Hancock]

I happily will, but I urge my hon. Friend to see the financial support that is in place and continues to be in place, most of it through to September. It was extended over that period in case we had to make an extension to the road map, and while I fully understand the impact on business—of course I do—I also can see the impact on saving lives. The advice is that this change will save thousands of lives because the protection of the vaccine, especially against dying of covid, is very, very strong, but the vaccine coverage is not yet comprehensive, especially with those second doses, so we need to get that done.

Mental Health Act Reform

Debate between Robert Neill and Matt Hancock

Wednesday 13th January 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The hon. Gentleman is right that GPs are the absolute frontline in treating mental ill health, not least because the first presentation of mental illness is often at GP practices. Funding for those services is increasing and it is important that that continues.

As GPs form larger groups—for instance, through primary care networks—the ability to have more specialist help is strengthened. I want to see closer integration between primary care, mental health trusts and acute trusts within the NHS. Throughout its history, the NHS has held mental health trusts separately from the provision of other services. It is increasingly clear that their integration, rather than separation, is the way forward.

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con) [V]]

I warmly congratulate my right hon. Friend on the statement—and my right hon. Friend the Lord Chancellor, who I am delighted to see on the Treasury Bench with him.

The abolition of the appalling practice of using prison as a place of safety for those who are mentally unwell is particularly welcome. That was unfair for the individuals and for the prison staff who had to deal with them under often-unsatisfactory conditions. It frequently happened because at the end of a hearing, magistrates or judges had endeavoured to find a hospital place, but none was available at the end of the day. What practical steps and resources will be put in place to ensure that a hospital place is identified before the defendant appears in court, so that they can be taken swiftly and seamlessly to an appropriate safe place, rather than prison?

[Matt Hancock]

Ensuring that that sort of link-up is standard practice across the criminal justice system is critical, and that is one area that the Lord Chancellor and I are working on. Ultimately, so too is the provision of enough places, because we can only send somebody to a place if the place exists. That consists of two pieces of work. The first is building more mental health hospitals, and the second is ensuring that people leave mental health hospitals when they can be better cared for in the community. Often it is cheaper and better for a patient to be treated in the community, but provision of community services must be in place so that that discharge can take place. A significant amount of work is going on to try to improve that process.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Robert Neill and Matt Hancock

Wednesday 30th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

We have put in more support to help care homes with the challenges that covid throws up, in relation to both testing and other things such as PPE that are so necessary. I am very happy to arrange a meeting between the hon. Gentleman and the Minister for Care, my hon. Friend the Member for Faversham and Mid Kent (Helen Whately), to see what more can be done, and in particular whether the burden that he describes—the time taken to do these vital tests—can be minimised in some way.

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con) [V]]

I welcome the work that the Secretary of State is doing, and particularly his answer to my hon. Friend the Member for South Thanet (Craig Mackinlay) about the importance of getting enough vaccinators. Even within London boroughs, I am conscious of a difference in the speed of roll-out, even to very vulnerable people. In my constituency, I have a number of recently retired medical people—doctors, clinicians and nurses—who would willingly volunteer if they were asked. In addition, will the Secretary of State make, or has he made, approaches to private healthcare providers? As I understand it, many of them have capacity and, I am told, they would be willing in some cases to make their staff available on a pro bono basis to help the NHS to roll out this vaccine.

[Matt Hancock]

Yes, I am pretty sure that that has been done. If it has not, I will absolutely check and get back to my hon. Friend. If anybody who is clinically qualified comes forward, we are very enthusiastic to hear from them. NHS Professionals, the body that is responsible for extra staff in the NHS, is organising the distribution of those who want to come back into service in order to help to vaccinate, and we look forward to hearing from people.

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Robert Neill and Matt Hancock

Monday 14th December 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I appreciate the sensitivity with which the hon. Lady raises this case. Of course I would be very happy to ensure that it is looked at properly by the JCVI, but the decision, as I am sure she will understand, is rightly for the JCVI.

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con) [V]]

The Secretary of State has to recognise that the decision in relation to London will have a crippling effect upon the hospitality industry in the capital, not least because this is the time of year when they might most hope to make good the losses that they have already suffered—[Interruption.]

Covid-19 Update

Debate between Robert Neill and Matt Hancock

Thursday 15th October 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

I do not think the hon. Gentleman was listening. I pointed out just previously not only that the national system in the last week has more than doubled the number of contacts that it has reached—I pay tribute to it for that—but that it is teamwork between the national and local systems that works best. It is the combination of the large-scale private organisations and the public sector—people working together—that is able to deliver, and to deliver a better service. I will tell him this: there was a time in the last few days when we had requests from local systems to bring some of the contact tracing back into the national Serco system so that it could help to reach more people. That sort of teamwork is what I look for, instead of the negative, derisory, divisive approach of the hon. Gentleman up there.

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)]

Would my right hon. Friend care to reflect that a number of us in London regard it as neither targeted, nor proportionate, nor appropriate to use a London-wide average in so large a metropolitan area where so little commuting is now taking place? Will he reflect on that in the future, and will he speak today to the Chancellor of the Exchequer to see what support can be given to hospitality businesses in the London suburbs that are suffering as of now as a direct consequence of his decision?

[Matt Hancock]

Of course, across London there is a huge amount of travelling to work. Although of course in different boroughs the rates are different—my hon. Friend is absolutely right about that—and in his patch they are lower than the London average, nevertheless, unfortunately, they are rising sharply. We considered a borough by borough approach, but because of the integrated nature of London and because, unfortunately, cases are rising fast across London, we decided that the best approach is for the whole of London to go into level 2 together.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Robert Neill and Matt Hancock

Tuesday 5th May 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

There are lots of things that we will need to learn when this crisis is over. The hospice system has always had a mixed model of funding—a very strong history of philanthropic support, as well as support and financial funding for the services it provides that the NHS commissions. The funding has started to flow. If there is a specific problem locally, I would like to know about it, and then we can get to the bottom of it.

[Sir Robert Neill (Bromley and Chislehurst) (Con)]

What progress he has made on ensuring that all key workers are able to access a covid-19 test.

[The Secretary of State for Health and Social Care (Matt Hancock)]

We expanded testing to all symptomatic essential workers and members of their households last month. As capacity continues to increase, we have been able to go further still, with all those who have symptoms and who have to leave home to go to work—and members of their households—now able to access a test. This is all part of the overall testing strategy, with the 100,000 tests that are now available.

[Sir Robert Neill [V]]

Testing of staff and residents at care homes in my constituency is being delivered by referrals either through the Care Quality Commission or through the pilot partnership that has been set up between our hospitals trust and our clinical commissioning group. In relation to the CQC, will my right hon. Friend examine why test results are taking five to seven days to come back, rather than the estimated 72 hours? In relation to the pilot scheme, where tests are being delivered efficiently, why are care home managers given the names of residents who test positive but, for data protection reasons, not the names of staff who test positive? That is creating obvious uncertainty.

[Matt Hancock]

I am glad to see the roll-out of testing to care homes, and we are able to go further for both residents and staff. It is an incredibly important part of the response and one of the reasons why testing is so important. My hon. Friend raises two important issues of detail in the roll-out, and I will ensure that they are looked into.