Oral Answers to Questions

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Tuesday 12th July 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am interested in my hon. Friend’s point. As he will have heard in response to an earlier question, we are already increasing access to NHS dentistry, with a 0.75 million increase in the space of a year. In fact, it is probably possible to address more effectively some of these questions of access to dentistry through a consistent national contract that can be responded to locally through the work of the health and well-being boards, which will be able to make their own recommendations through the joint strategic needs assessment.

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

T4. Given that the UK has the worst one-year and five-year survival rates for lung cancer compared with Australia, Canada, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, as has been highlighted today by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation report, what measures is the Secretary of State taking to improve the detection of lung cancer symptoms in primary care?

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady will know that we are focusing, as I said in response to an earlier question, on improving survival rates at one and five years for lung cancer, among other cancers. One essential task is to improve public awareness of the symptoms of lung cancer, and we are already piloting means by which we can do that. At the same time, there have been research trials on the effectiveness of X-ray screening for lung cancer, and we will look at the results shortly.

Oral Answers to Questions

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Tuesday 26th April 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mr Lansley]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his question, but in response I will simply reiterate what I said to our hon. Friend the Member for Leeds North West: that these matters are currently the subject of consultation by an independent group representing the primary care trusts collectively, and not by the Department of Health at this stage.

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

T8. Given the concerns of researchers and medical research charities and their belief that the research provisions in the Health and Social Care Bill should be strengthened, what discussions has the Secretary of State had with the medical research community during this pause?

[Mr Lansley]

The hon. Lady will know that the Health and Social Care Bill does make specific provision for NHS organisations to have regard to the needs for research. She will, I hope, also be very well aware that, by virtue of decisions made by this Government in the spending review, we have been able to sustain the level of research in the NHS. In particular, I was recently able to announce a new 30% increase in funding for translational research funded through the NHS.

NHS Reorganisation

Yvonne Fovargue Excerpts

Wednesday 17th November 2010 Commons Chamber

[Yvonne Fovargue (Makerfield) (Lab)]

Does my hon. Friend agree that the description of a consortium of GPs—a loose affinity of people with whom they get on rather than a geographical boundary—and the loss of co-terminosity will affect patients? Indeed, it will not simply be a postcode lottery, but, across the board, a matter of whom a patient is registered with.

[Yasmin Qureshi]

I thank my hon. Friend for that intervention. Some years ago, when that sort of process was introduced in the legal system, with solicitors able to apply for franchises, the big firms benefited and the smaller, local firms went bust. A similar thing will happen. Some GPs, who run small surgeries in the heart of a community, will not be able to form consortiums. What happens to them? Does it mean that people in parts of Kearsley in my constituency will have to travel seven miles to go to a big GP consortium rather than being able to walk down the street and speak to their GPs, as they currently do?

The reform means that private patients will have a chance to pay for faster care in the NHS. Now that the restriction on the income that can be made from private patients is being lifted, cash-strapped hospitals will find it difficult to resist that income stream. Patients could routinely be offered that route to faster treatment. Thus wealthier people can queue jump, while NHS patients will linger on a lengthening waiting list.

I know that the Secretary of State—