Covid-19 Update

Scott Benton Excerpts

Monday 17th May 2021 Commons Chamber

[Matt Hancock]

The history as the hon. Gentleman describes it is, in fact, wrong. We put India on the red list and therefore required hotel quarantine before the variant was designated even as under investigation, let alone as a variant of concern. So yes, we did take pre-emptive action. Anybody arriving now who has been in India in the past 10 days must go to a hotel to quarantine.

[Scott Benton (Blackpool South) (Con)]

Although the incredible success of our world-leading vaccination programme has reduced the number of people in hospital with covid substantially, thereby relieving much of the pressure on the NHS, many of my constituents are still waiting longer for non-urgent NHS care. I am delighted that Blackpool Victoria Hospital is included in the pilot project looking at innovative ways to deliver services and reduce the backlog. Can my right hon. Friend reassure me that it will get all the resources it needs to remove the backlog as quickly as it possibly can?

[Matt Hancock]

Yes. Blackpool Victoria is a fantastic hospital and the team there has worked incredibly hard, especially over the past year and a half. I am delighted that it is part of the plan to work out how we can go even faster to get not just to the baseline 100% levels of activity in the equivalent month in 2019, but far higher than that, because we have to get through the backlog. The backlog is not just those who are currently on the waiting list, although too many are waiting more than a year and the waiting list is too long; there are also people who have not yet presented, but who we know are likely to have a problem. This is a huge challenge and I am very grateful to colleagues in Blackpool, who are working so hard not just to get through the backlog, but learn how best to get through it so that others can learn from them.