Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sajid Javid and Helen Morgan

Tuesday 19th April 2022 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I know that my hon. Friend knows Helen Harrison extremely well, but he is right to talk about the importance of the NHS and the adult social care sector and local authorities working together. We must make sure that it is a true partnership, where one does not overwhelm the other and they work together towards their shared interests.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

One key cause of the urgent care crisis in Shropshire, in the Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital NHS Trust, is the inability to discharge patients who are medically fit to go home into social care in the community. Shropshire Council’s resource challenges in that area are well known. Will the Secretary of State commit to putting extra resource into social care in Shropshire so that the medically fit can be discharged into the community when they are ready?

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady is absolutely right to raise this issue, and the whole House heard just before the recess the results of the independent work done by Donna Ockenden. The hon. Lady is right to talk about that and the pressure that has been faced locally. I understand that she has already reached out to my hon. Friend the Minister for Health and that he will be meeting her to discuss just that.

Ockenden Report

Debate between Sajid Javid and Helen Morgan

Wednesday 30th March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I very much agree. I want to acknowledge that the report ultimately took place because of my right hon. Friend’s decision to ask Donna Ockenden to do the independent review, but he is absolutely right that he, in turn, did so because of the bravery of Rhiannon Davies and Richard Stanton, of Kayleigh and Colin Griffiths and of the many other families who came to see him.

My right hon. Friend asked about the immediate and essential actions. The interim report sets out seven such actions; the trust has implemented them all, and across the NHS they are either fully or partially implemented. The final report also recommends such actions; their implementation has already begun. Of course, we have just received the report, but I have asked for a timetable of when it will all be done. I want to see it done as quickly as possible.

My right hon. Friend’s point about workforce is very important. I hope he welcomes the fact that, for the first time, the NHS has been asked to set out a 15-year workforce plan.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

I join colleagues across the House in thanking all the families who have bravely come forward to share their experiences, particularly Kayleigh, Colin, Rhiannon and Richard, whose persistence has led to the review. I hope that women and babies in Shropshire, Telford and the Wrekin and across the UK will be safer in future as a result of their bravery.

I thank Donna Ockenden and her team for their thoroughness in reviewing so many tragic cases. I am sure that the Secretary of State agrees that this can never be allowed to happen again and that the deaths of these 201 babies must not be in vain. This must be a turning point for maternity services in England.

Donna Ockenden has endorsed the findings of the Health and Social Care Committee and recommended that an immediate investment of £200 million to £350 million per annum is required to keep women safe. I welcome the Secretary of State’s guarantees that the immediate and essential actions will be implemented, but may I ask whether he can commit the additional resources recommended by Donna Ockenden today?

[Sajid Javid]

I thank the hon. Lady for her comments. I assure her that constituents throughout Shropshire, Telford and the Wrekin, and indeed families across England, will be safer as a result of those brave families coming forward and this report.

On resources, the hon. Lady will have heard me talk about the £95 million given at the time of the interim report, plus the £127 million given for maternity services in the past few days. We will keep that under review.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Sajid Javid and Helen Morgan

Tuesday 1st March 2022 Commons Chamber

[Sajid Javid]

I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. Let me take this opportunity once again to thank everyone who has been working in the NHS, especially for all that they have done during the pandemic. We are continuing to invest in the workforce through our 50,000-person expansion in the nurse programme, and we already have 44,000 more full-time employees in healthcare settings than we had this time last year, including 4,600 more doctors and 11,100 more nurses.

[Helen Morgan (North Shropshire) (LD)]

The lack of capacity in accident and emergency departments and other healthcare services is a major contributor to the ongoing ambulance waiting time crisis in my constituency. Will the Secretary of State meet me and representatives of the West Midlands ambulance service—as I have repeatedly asked him to do—to help to resolve the crisis?

[Sajid Javid]

The hon. Lady is right to raise this matter. As she will know, owing to the pressures of the pandemic we have seen significant challenges for ambulance services throughout the country. Just a few days ago I met the head of the West Midlands ambulance service to discuss some of the issues, and also how the extra funding that we provided over the winter—some £55 million of support for ambulance services—is helping.