Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Burns and Duncan Hames

Thursday 18th October 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Simon Burns]

Yes. As I know the hon. Lady is aware, significant investment is being made in Thameslink—some £6 billion is being invested, £4.5 billion of which is for the infrastructure and £1.5 billion of which is for the rolling stock. I understand her concerns. My Department and I are working to ensure that the rolling stock is ready for the project and I would have the greatest pleasure in meeting the hon. Lady at her convenience.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

Will the Minister confirm that Access for All funding will not be raided to pay compensation to franchise bidders and that the project to build lifts at Chippenham station is therefore still on track?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Burns and Duncan Hames

Tuesday 12th June 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Burns]

Yes, I can give that assurance. I know this has been of some concern to the right hon. Gentleman and the north-east, but I can tell him that we are not planning to alter resource allocation to transfer funds from the poorest parts of the country. There is also no mandate to propose a formula based purely on age. As he may or may not know, although age is the primary driver of an individual’s need for health services, the most recent primary care trust formula uses a range of factors to determine fair shares, including the age structure of the population, levels of deprivation and the unavoidable costs in providing services between areas.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

The last of those factors is relevant because community health care increasingly allows people to live at home for longer and to go home sooner after hospital admissions. However, that means that sparsity is a factor in the cost of providing health services in rural areas such as Wiltshire. Will the Minister therefore find a way of recognising that within funding allocations?

[Mr Burns]

Yes. I hope I can reassure the hon. Gentleman. As he may be aware, the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation is currently reviewing the formula by which funding is allocated. We await its recommendations and will look at them carefully before making any announcements.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Burns and Duncan Hames

Tuesday 22nd November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Speaker]

Order. It seems that the subject matter for an Adjournment debate is being provided.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

Two, or even three, wrongs do not make a right. Regarding an exemplary risk register, does the Minister consider that the mitigation plans for any risks identified there may serve to reassure Members of the other House, if it were to be published in advance of the conclusion of the Committee stage there?

[Mr Burns]

If the hon. Gentleman had read it, he would know that the important aspect—[Interruption.] He says that he cannot read it, but if he listens for a minute, he will hear that the important parts that are relevant to the Health and Social Care Bill were published in January and September this year in the impact assessment for the Bill.

Hinchingbrooke Hospital

Debate between Simon Burns and Duncan Hames

Thursday 10th November 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Burns]

I am not. I am just being honest. If there is a loss, Circle will pick it up, up to the first £5 million. Hinchingbrooke is a struggling hospital with a deficit of £39 million. That is why we are having to take the actions that the Government that the hon. Gentleman supported instigated more than three years ago. There is a formula that gives an incentive for Circle to deliver, to raise the quality of care, to reduce and, we hope, over the 10-year period to remove the deficit altogether.

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

When a hospital’s consultants have a financial interest in its performance, what safeguards will prevent their private interest in increasing the volume of treatments provided putting the hospital’s financial health ahead of that of the local national health service?

[Mr Burns]

Under the agreements that have been signed, the consultants are there to manage an NHS hospital treating NHS-only patients and to ensure the finest quality of care for the NHS. That is the safeguard.

Minor Injuries Services (Devizes)

Debate between Simon Burns and Duncan Hames

Tuesday 13th July 2010 Westminster Hall

[Mr Burns]

Obviously, I cannot give a commitment that my hon. Friend would be successful. I wish her well in her endeavours, but it is not for me to prejudge what might happen. She is certainly right that if she puts all her ducks in a row—as she put it—with a business plan for what she believes her constituents need, she can present it to the national commissioning board and to GP consortiums in her area. Everybody will then work together, and make an overwhelming case for what my hon. Friend wants to see delivered for the local people of Devizes and her constituency.

As my hon. Friend will accept, “The times they are a-changin’”. The Government’s approach is different from the top-down approach taken by the previous Government. We believe that local decision making is essential to improve outcomes for patients and drive up quality. We will do more than just talk about pushing power to the local level; as the Secretary of State’s White Paper shows, we are going to do it and make the dream a reality. That will be of considerable help to my hon. Friend in her campaign.

Given my hon. Friend’s experiences during her ongoing battle, she will agree that we must move away from having Whitehall dictate how care should be delivered in Devizes, Westbury or any other town or village in Wiltshire. We believe that change must be driven from the bottom up, and that the patient must be the heart of health care provision. The patient must be put first; their interests and quality of health care is the No. 1 priority, not the decisions, ramifications and shenanigans of politicians and civil servants.

In future, all service changes must be led by clinicians and patients, not driven by Ministers such as me, or civil servants from the Department of Health. Only then will the NHS achieve the quality improvements that we all want to see.

[Duncan Hames]

In his search for local accountability in decision making, it would be helpful if the Minister advised hon. Members where in the process the public’s demand for these services will be heard. Is there a role for locally elected politicians to secure influence in determining outcomes through the health overview and scrutiny committees of our local councils?

[Mr Burns]

If the hon. Gentleman refers to current arrangements, he will no doubt be aware that in late May, the Secretary of State announced changes to the criteria that need to be taken into account in any reconfigurations currently under way—providing that those reconfigurations are not so far advanced that it would be impossible to reverse them—and any future reconfigurations. The main priorities include taking into account the views of local people, clinicians and GPs and ensuring that health care is relevant for the local area.

If the hon. Gentleman is asking what will happen after the changes in the White Paper, let me say that once the PCTs are wound down and abolished, there will be a transfer of powers to the national commissioning board and all that flows downwards from that. Provision and responsibility for the commissioning and delivery of health care in a local area will be linked to local authorities, and accountability will be through local authority input with locally elected representatives. Public health is currently dealt with through the input from the primary local authority level in each area. That is where the accountability will be. The predominant point is that because one must have a locally driven health service, the wishes of the patient—not only in their individual care but in the requirements of the local community—must be fundamental to the decision about units or configurations. I hope that the hon. Gentleman and my hon. Friend are reassured by that.

In conclusion, I once again pay tribute to my hon. Friend for her commitment and dedication in fighting so hard for her constituents, not only before the election but afterwards. She has been in the House for about eight weeks, and she has already made her mark fighting for her constituents on the issue that she promised, during those long days in April, to take to Westminster. She is now in Westminster and has brought the issue to the debate today. I have every confidence that she will continue to use the means available to her in the House to pursue her agenda, and that she will mobilise support in her constituency to ensure that the issue does not go away. She will be determined to get what she believes to be the best health care for her community, and I wish her every success.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Simon Burns and Duncan Hames

Tuesday 29th June 2010 Commons Chamber

[Duncan Hames (Chippenham) (LD)]

T7. What encouragement is the Secretary of State giving to primary care trusts to restore minor injury services to towns such as Melksham in my constituency? It saw its minor injuries unit close under the last Government.

[The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr Simon Burns)]

I am very grateful to the hon. Gentleman for that question. It is up to local communities and local health providers to identify what they believe are the local needs of their communities and then go through the procedures, measures and mechanisms to seek to achieve what they want—in this case, that could be a new A and E. It is not for Ministers to promise such provision; there are proper procedures, from the local area upwards, for achieving such aims.