Covid-19

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Tuesday 1st September 2020 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

It is very good that we have been able to give funds to over 100 A&Es across the country so that they can expand, both to be able to cope with infection control procedures and to ensure that there is more space. I pay tribute to the Minister for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood (Edward Argar), who has driven through this programme along with the NHS. I am confident that this can be built in time for winter to ensure that we are ready by December.

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

All of west London rejoiced when the Secretary of State axed the hated “Shaping a healthier future” programme, which was established by his predecessor. Will he now stave off the rumours circulating and confirm that the stopping of services at Ealing Hospital—that programme would have put an end to those services, as we know it—does not mean that the closure programme is coming in through the back door? There are a lot of rumours around. Will he start by restoring in full the CEPOD surgery and trauma services, so that we ward off the second spike that he and I do not want?

[Matt Hancock]

We have indeed stopped “Shaping a healthier future”, as it was called. We are continuing with the investment into primary healthcare services that was a part of that programme, but not with the rest of it. I am happy to arrange a meeting between the Minister for Health, my hon. Friend the Member for Charnwood, who is brilliant on this stuff, and the hon. Lady and other west London colleagues, to ensure that that commitment is kept to.

Covid-19

Rupa Huq Excerpts

Monday 16th March 2020 Commons Chamber

[Dr Rupa Huq (Ealing Central and Acton) (Lab)]

Among those who cannot work from home and who feel vulnerable are GPs. Will the Secretary of State heed the advice of the locum who came to see me, and sort out the inconsistencies whereby 111 has been diverting people to surgeries? Can he also do away with the box-ticking target culture that makes GPs terrified to perform a number of consultations in a certain length of time, and also get rid of the quality and outcomes framework appraisals, which are just unnecessary, and let doctors be doctors?

[Matt Hancock]

My message to everybody in the NHS is that they should do what they need to do to keep people safe in front of them. We are reducing a whole load of the bureaucracy that gets in the way —for instance, with measures from the Care Quality Commission—to ensure that people just do what is right in front of them. As the hon. Lady says, GPs cannot work from home. Some GP appointments do need to be face to face, but increasingly they can be over the phone or over Skype, and so they should be.