European Union (Notification of Withdrawal) Bill

Debate between Steve McCabe and Dan Poulter

Tuesday 31st January 2017 Commons Chamber

[Steve McCabe]

I acknowledge that after a lifetime of denials the Prime Minister said she would issue a White Paper and that we might now get it after the vote on the Bill. That does not seem like much use to me.

The referendum, as has been pointed out, settled the question about our wish to leave the EU, but it did not shape the answer. When the Prime Minister eventually broke her silence in the Lancaster House speech to reveal her intention to disengage entirely from the single market, I do not accept she was reflecting the views of a majority of people in this country. We need to try to ensure continued access to that market on the best terms we can secure and in a way that does not exclude us from regulatory decisions. Without that we risk jobs and businesses and we risk setting in train a period of uncertainty that might do untold damage to our economy.

I accept that the Prime Minister’s position is influenced by her desire to end freedom of movement, but where is the evidence that all those who voted leave actually wanted to prioritise their concerns about freedom of movement over access to the market for our goods and services? Why is it unreasonable to try to reach agreement on controls on freedom of movement? As my hon. Friend the Member for Wolverhampton North East (Emma Reynolds) said, why is it so wrong to seek fair movement arrangements allowing for those we need to come here and work, while placing restrictions on lower skilled labour and those not in demand? It might help if the Government were to indicate, as a positive gesture, that they will not use the rights of EU citizens already living and working here as a bargaining chip. That would not be a massive concession, given that the Home Office has already calculated that 80% of EU migrants living here after 2019 will be entitled to permanent residency.

[Dr Daniel Poulter (Central Suffolk and North Ipswich) (Con)]

The hon. Gentleman makes a good point about protecting the rights of EU citizens contributing to and living in the country, but does he not accept that it is the other countries in the EU that are potentially using this issue as a bargaining chip, rather than this Government, and that it is difficult to enter into negotiations unless we have a similar agreement from them to protect the rights of British citizens living elsewhere in Europe?

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve McCabe and Dan Poulter

Tuesday 24th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

11. How many nurses per million population were working in the NHS in each of the last five years.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter)]

The full-time equivalent number of nurses, midwives and health visitors working in the hospital and community health services in England per million population from September 2010 to September 2014 inclusive has remained broadly constant at 5,872, 5,768, 5,703, 5,712 and 5,781 respectively.

[Steve McCabe]

In response to 11 parliamentary questions that I submitted in the past year, the Minister has admitted that he does not know how many part-time, agency and locum GPs are in the health service, the number of agency and part-time nurses, the number of part-time doctors in our hospitals, or how many working nurses and midwives are also drawing their pensions. Given that he has so little detail on staffing, where did today’s figures come from, and what faith can anyone have in them?

[Dr Poulter]

They are in the monthly staff statistics survey. As the hon. Gentleman would like some detailed information, I am sure he will be pleased to hear that in his constituency there are now 386 more nurses than there were in 2010 under the previous Government, and nationally there are 7,500 more nurses, midwives and health visitors working in the NHS.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve McCabe and Dan Poulter

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

T2. A Birmingham trust has recently announced that it will be possible to cut 1,000 beds across the city by setting a maximum stay of seven days for most patients. Not surprisingly, this has caused some alarm. Are Ministers aware of that proposal? What guidance, if any, can they offer in regard to such proposals?

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter)]

As the hon. Gentleman will be aware, patients need to be treated according to clinical need, and bed stays should not be determined by anything other than that. So if what he describes is actually the case, it would be very disturbing. If he would like to raise the issue further with me, I would be happy to look into it for him.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Steve McCabe and Dan Poulter

Tuesday 15th January 2013 Commons Chamber

[Dr Poulter]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right to point out the excellent work done at his local unit, which receives funding from the NHS and from charitable sources. We are investing more money into training midwives, and there are now more midwives working in the NHS. It is for local commissioners to capitalise on that, and to invest in support for neonatal units.

[Steve McCabe (Birmingham, Selly Oak) (Lab)]

With births per midwife rising, maternity services being cut and newly qualified midwives unable to find a job, what on earth happened to the famous boast of the Prime Minister that he would recruit 3,000 more midwives and make their lives a lot easier?

[Dr Poulter]

With respect, perhaps the hon. Gentleman should listen to my answers before he pre-prepares a statement. I just outlined clearly that in the past two years there have already been 800 more midwives working in the NHS, and there are record numbers in training thanks to the investment being made by the Government. We are delivering on making sure that we are investing in maternity and investing in high-quality care for women. We are proud to be doing that—something the previous Government failed to do.

Health and Social Care (Re-committed) Bill

Debate between Steve McCabe and Dan Poulter

Tuesday 6th September 2011 Commons Chamber

[Dr Poulter]

I was hoping to begin on a more consensual note, picking up on a few things that have been said around the Chamber on which I thought we could all agree. However, I will first remind the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) of why the Government are introducing this Bill. We do have problems in the NHS. Far too much money—about £5 billion a year—is wasted on bureaucracy and could be much better spent on front-line patient care. Over the past 10 years, the number of managers in the NHS has doubled, going up six times as fast as the number of front-line nurses; the hon. Lady is very concerned about that. A lot of things need to change in the NHS so that the service can become more patient-focused and patient-centred. That is why we are making these changes and why the reforms in this Bill have to go through the House.

Particularly important—this has come out of the pause for reflection and the Future Forum report—has been an increased focus on one of the key challenges for the health service and for adult social care: better care of our growing older population. People are living a lot longer and living longer with multiple medical conditions, or co-morbidities as they would be termed in medical parlance. That is a very big human challenge for the NHS, and also a very big financial challenge. We must have a service that better meets and better responds to those challenges. The pause for reflection has led to much more focus on improved integration of care, and that will be very much to the benefit of the older patients and frail elderly whom we all care about.

We have had a lot of discussion about the benefits, or otherwise, of using the private sector. The case for the private sector may have been made much more eloquently by Labour Members than by members of the Government. The hon. Member for Easington (Grahame M. Morris) argued that because the previous Government used the private sector to reduce waiting times, it was effectively used to improve patient care for patients with cataracts and for those needing hip operations or waiting for heart operations. That, in itself, was a good thing, but the problem was that the previous Government used the private sector far too much in a way that allowed it to make profits but not to look towards the integrated care that Government Members would like to see as a result of these health care reforms. As regards looking after the frail elderly, for example, there was cherry-picking of hip operations as part of orthopaedics but without the follow-up care that was required—the physiotherapy, occupational therapy and social services that those older people so badly needed. Yes, the private sector can bring value and benefits to the NHS, as the previous Government recognised, but it has to be done in an integrated way, and that is what we will do as a result of these health care reforms.

Why else do we need to reform the NHS? Are we really happy with the status quo?

[Steve McCabe]

Before the hon. Gentleman moves on, I want to make sure that I have understood him. Is he saying that under these plans the private sector is to be given a bigger share—a more total share—of areas of care and that it will not be isolated as a bit of expanded capacity to reduce waiting lists? Is he saying that it will have a broader role involving a total package of care for particular sectors? Is that the aim?

[Dr Poulter]

The aim is consistent with that of the previous Government in bringing in the private sector—to improve patient care. Where the private sector can deliver high-quality patient care—for example, by reducing waiting times—that is a good thing. The private sector can deliver high-quality care but in an integrated way. That is particularly important in the elderly care setting and in rural communities. That is absolutely consistent with what the hon. Gentleman’s Government did and what this Government are trying to build on and develop as a part of this package of reforms.

Are we really happy with the status quo—with the NHS as it stands? I have alluded to some of the waste and bureaucracy and the £5 billion that could be better spent on front-line patient care, but that would be a simplistic view of why we need to improve the NHS. We have heard the names of various bodies being bandied around today. However, on-the-ground surveys of front-line doctors and nurses show, as in a survey conducted in 2009, that in the current NHS the majority of health care staff in hospitals do not believe that looking after patients is the main priority of their NHS trust. What could be more important to a hospital than looking after its patients? The reason for that finding is that the bureaucracy in the processes of health care has often got in the way of delivering good care. Recently, a number of CQC reports throughout my part of the world—the east of England—have indicated failings, particularly in elderly care. The main focus of those reports was that staff were too bogged down with bureaucracy and paperwork and unable to look specifically at the needs of the patients right in front of them.