NHS Reform

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Monday 4th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Yes, I agree. Indeed, in north-east Essex, the consortium under Dr Shane Gordon’s leadership is doing exactly that. I personally think that leadership and listening are not mutually exclusive, and we are going to continue to do both.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

In the spirit of openness, will the Secretary of State please place in the House of Commons Library a copy of the legal advice on whether EU competition law will apply to the provisions in the Bill?

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady should know, as a member of the Health Select Committee, that I wrote to the Chair of the Committee just last week and set out the position very fully. The Bill does not extend the scope or application of competition law at all.

Oral Answers to Questions

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Tuesday 8th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

Local attention, through the public health responsibilities that currently lie with PCTs, but which in future will lie with local authorities, is a means by which we can improve health and the health of some of the groups most at risk of HIV. We have a number of pilot schemes that my hon. Friend might know about and that we are currently assessing, which have looked at opportunistic HIV screening for the many people who are currently undiagnosed with HIV. That is encouraging, and we might well be able to follow up on it.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

T10. Given that the chief medical officer does not have a background in public health, and despite the existence of Public Health England, should the Secretary of State not ensure that there is a public health expert on the national commissioning board, because that is where all the power lies?

[Mr Lansley]

I am surprised, because the hon. Lady is on the Select Committee on Health and should know that responsibility for public health will lie both with Public Health England, inside the Department of Health, and with local authorities. The NHS commissioning board will have a responsibility for prevention, but the population health responsibility will lie with Public Health England, and I have absolute confidence that Dame Sally Davies, the newly appointed chief medical officer, will be a leader in public health delivery, through Public Health England.

Swine Flu

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Monday 10th January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for that question. His local hospital, the Glenfield in Leicester, leads on specialised ECMO bed services. In this country, we have increased the number of ECMO beds; we have more per head of population than any of the developed health economies, including the United States. As for treatments and vaccinations, I continue to rest upon the scientific and expert advice. Indeed, I hope that patients will consult their clinicians about their treatments.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State say whether he took the decision to delay the advertising campaign and, if so, when?

Oral Answers to Questions

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Tuesday 2nd November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. He knows that the criteria that I set out, which were repeated earlier during questions, must be applied, not only to the strategies that were previously presented, but to potential new strategies that Barnet and Chase Farm hospitals might wish to present, in order to ensure that GP commissioning intentions, future patient choice and public views are properly reflected.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

Many of my constituents are being offered the swine flu vaccine in combination with the seasonal flu vaccine. Will the Secretary of State ensure that they have the choice to have those vaccines separately?

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady will forgive me, but I do not propose to make that available, as it would be a great deal more expensive. Each year, and on an international basis, the World Health Organisation advises on what the seasonal flu vaccine should consist of, and it almost always consists of the three most likely strains combined together into one vaccine.

Contaminated Blood and Blood Products

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Commons Chamber

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

It is always a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Dartford (Gareth Johnson).

My hon. Friend the Member for Liverpool, Walton (Steve Rotheram) paid tribute to the campaigners by wearing a black tie. I am in rather a bright outfit for this occasion because of my own tribute to the breast cancer care campaign.

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Coventry North West (Mr Robinson) on initiating this debate and I support his motion. In the words of Lord Winston, this is the “worst treatment disaster” in the history of the UK. Not only is it a human tragedy, but it is grossly unjust. My constituent Valerie Moule is widowed because, through no fault of her own or of her husband, the blood that he was given as a haemophiliac was contaminated by HIV. Ivan Moule was one of the first people to die from contaminated blood, in 1989. This is an unimaginable injustice. Ivan Moule innocently received blood as a treatment without knowing that it was killing him.

Injustice in any part of life has to be corrected and someone has to take responsibility when things go wrong—

[Mr Tom Clarke]

My hon. Friend has outlined some of the big issues that we are debating. Does she agree that one of the most unacceptable aspects of this situation is how widows have been treated?

--- Later in debate ---

[Valerie Vaz]

I agree with my right hon. Friend, and when I was contacted by Mrs Moule she very calmly and quietly encouraged me to take part in this debate.

When things go wrong, someone has to take responsibility, and that is the cornerstone of a civilised society. Despite their bereavement and illnesses, the determined campaigners, who are sitting in the Public Gallery wearing their armbands, established an independent inquiry paid for by private means. Not only do they have truth on their side, but—since April 2010—they have had the law on their side. In the Republic of Ireland, a full financial scheme is in place, with a compensation scheme based on civil law principles, but that is not mirrored in this country.

Haemophiliacs began dying of AIDS in the early 1980s. Some 2,000 people have already died having been infected by HIV. In my view, the Archer inquiry made significant recommendations that should all be implemented. It was cost-effective at the time to buy blood from other countries that was unscreened and, if we are not careful, that could happen again if commercial, cost-cutting considerations are brought into an area where they do not belong. As the Archer report says, commercial priorities should never override the interests of public health. This is a matter of public importance and public interest.

Proper financial relief should be paid to those who were infected. As a nation, we should apologise to those families who have suffered. We also need a commitment that blood will be screened and that blood from imported or unknown sources will not be used. We owe that to those who have died, like Ivan Moule, and to the living who cared for them, like Valerie Moule. I urge hon. Members to do the right thing and support the motion.

Oral Answers to Questions

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Tuesday 7th September 2010 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend. Many people are concerned about their experience of a postcode lottery and access to new cancer drugs. Indeed, there is not just a postcode lottery but an international lottery, with patients in this country not getting access through the NHS to new cancer drugs while patients in other countries do get access to those drugs in the same clinical circumstances. That is why we will not only establish the cancer drugs fund next year, but, this year, we have found £50 million by making savings on management and marketing costs to enable new cancer drugs to be made available, at a regional level across England, where they are not funded locally.

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

Has the Secretary of State had any discussions with the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence about the fund, and is it cash-limited?

[Mr Lansley]

Yes, I did have discussions with NICE. The interim measure this year is indeed cash-limited—£50 million is available between October and the end of March.

NHS White Paper

Valerie Vaz Excerpts

Monday 12th July 2010 Commons Chamber

[Valerie Vaz (Walsall South) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State talks about choice in the NHS, but could he confirm that GPs will be given the choice to join a consortium?

[Mr Lansley]

GP practices will all have to be members of a consortium, otherwise it will not be possible for them collectively to commission emergency and urgent care, and they will need to do that.