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Tuesday Volume 531 12 July 2011 No. 186 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 12 July 2011 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2011 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through The National Archives website at www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/information-management/our-services/parliamentary-licence-information.htm Enquiries to The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 141 12 JULY 2011 142 services and exports and subtracts the price of UK House of Commons imports, it gives a more appropriate overall measure of inflation. Tuesday 12 July 2011 Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con): Does my right hon. Friend welcome the increase in the NHS West Sussex The House met at half-past Two o’clock budget of £35 million this year, which, coupled with the provisions of the Health and Social Care Bill, means PRAYERS that we will have far greater patient choice in our local area? [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Mr Lansley: Yes, I do indeed welcome that. We all know that last year, this year and in future years, increases in the NHS budget in real terms will not be the Oral Answers to Questions kind of real-terms increases we saw in the past, but they will be real-terms increases. What we are already seeing in the NHS—we saw it last year—is that with a 2.2% increase in cash spending, there is none the less an HEALTH ability to sustain, and in many respects improve, performance. The Secretary of State was asked— John Healey (Wentworth and Dearne) (Lab): In spite of the spin, the truth is that the Prime Minister’s personal NHS Funding promise to give the NHS a real rise in funding is being broken. It is not just how much that counts; it is how 1. Karl McCartney (Lincoln) (Con): What arrangements well the money is spent. Today is one year to the very are in place to ensure increased funding for the NHS day that the Health Secretary launched the Government’s during the comprehensive spending review period. plans to “liberate” the NHS. He told the House: [65106] “we will phase out the top-down management hierarchy”—[Official Report, 12 July 2010; Vol. 513, c. 663.] The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Andrew Lansley): He said that he would reduce “the number and cost” of We will increase NHS funding in real terms in each year NHS-related quangos, so why is he setting up the new of this Parliament. Compared to the level of expenditure national commissioning board, set to employ 3,500 people, in the national health service in the last financial year, when even its chief executive says that it the resources available to the NHS will increase by £12.5 billion by the end of the spending review period. “could become the greatest quango in the sky we have seen”. The budget available for the NHS in the financial year Why is the right hon. Gentleman setting up more than 2011-12 is 3.9% higher than spend in the previous year, 500 public bodies in the NHS when 161 do the job now, 2010-11. and why are the Government wasting precious NHS funding on the biggest reorganisation in history, when it Karl McCartney: Can my right hon. Friend give me could and should be spent on patient care? any examples of how the increased funding this Government have promised here in England is, unlike Mr Lansley: Since the election we have reduced the what is happening in Wales, delivering better care for number of managers in the NHS by more than 4,000 and our NHS services? increased the number of doctors by more than 2,000. The NHS commissioning board—I did not hear from Mr Lansley: Yes, I can indeed do that. We are committed the right hon. Gentleman whether he supports it—is to real-terms increases in the NHS budget in England. part of our strategy to give the NHS not only local According to an analysis by the King’s Fund, the Welsh clinical leadership but national leadership through it. Assembly Government—a Labour-led Welsh Government The functions covered by the board are currently undertaken —are going to reduce the NHS budget by 8.3% in real by something approaching 8,000 staff; the number delivering terms by 2013-14 in comparison with 2010-11. That those functions in future will go down to 3,500 staff, so might be one reason why it is already the case that in the reduction in administration will be dramatic. Wales, 26.4% of patients in April 2011 waited more than 18 weeks for treatment. John Healey: We had plans to reduce bureaucracy, which were published, and we also said that the Government Chris Leslie (Nottingham East) (Lab/Co-op): Will should keep Labour’s waiting time guarantees for patients, the Secretary of State confirm that his definition of a which the Health Secretary told the House a year ago real-terms increase is based on a 2.9% figure? Will he today were “unjustified” targets, which he would remove. also confirm that the retail price index actually stands The Prime Minister has now promised to keep waiting at 5%, so any claim that he is increasing the NHS times low, but after one wasted year of NHS reorganisation budget in real terms is a complete and total con? by the right hon. Gentleman’s Government, an extra 25,000 patients a month are waiting more than four Mr Lansley: I think that it has been conventional hours in accident and emergency departments, an extra over many years for the calculation of real terms in 12,000 patients a month are waiting more than six public accounting to use the GDP deflator. Given that weeks for tests, and an extra 2,300 patients a month are it includes the prices of investment goods, Government waiting more than 18 weeks to get into hospital for the 143 Oral Answers12 JULY 2011 Oral Answers 144 treatment they need. The NHS deputy chief executive Paul Burstow: That important question must be partly has called the rise in long waiting times this year addressed by the hon. Gentleman’s colleagues in the “unacceptable”. Does the Health Secretary agree? Welsh Assembly, but one of the issues raised by the Law Commission’s recommendations on law reform that we Mr Lansley: As we said in the NHS constitution, we must address is that of ordinary residence tests to do not intend patients to be waiting for more than ensure that people have access to the right care at the 18 weeks. [HON.MEMBERS: “They are!”] The April figures right time and in the right place. show that we met the operational standard, which is that more than 90% of admitted patients and more than Ms Stuart: The Minister said that he was engaging 95% of non-admitted patients should be treated within fully with stakeholders. Does that include the Treasury, 18 weeks. The right hon. Gentleman’s analysis of waiting given reports that the Dilnot proposals are being strangled times did not include the fact that the average time for at birth? which patients waited for treatment in April was 7.7 weeks, down from 8.4 weeks in May 2010. The average time for Paul Burstow: Cross-government discussions take place which patients wait is being reduced. about any matter that requires legislation and funding—and of course the Treasury plays its part in those discussions. Funding Care and Support Roberta Blackman-Woods: Does the Minister agree that the Government need to act quickly on the 2. Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab): What assessment commission’s report, not least because the Southern he has made of the conclusions and recommendations Cross situation, which is affecting many people in my of the recent report by the Commission on Funding of constituency, has shown that the current model, which Care and Support. [65107] involves relying largely on private care, is simply not sustainable? 7. Chris Ruane (Vale of Clwyd) (Lab): What assessment he has made of the conclusions and recommendations Paul Burstow: We will return to that important matter of the recent report by the Commission on Funding of later, with the urgent question. However, we must examine the position of Southern Cross and the business model Care and Support. [65112] that underpinned it very carefully, in order to understand how such a model was agreed to under the arrangements 11. Ms Gisela Stuart (Birmingham, Edgbaston) (Lab): for regulating care providers that existed before the What assessment he has made of the conclusions and establishment of the Care Quality Commission. recommendations of the recent report by the Commission on Funding of Care and Support. [65118] Mr Stephen Dorrell (Charnwood) (Con): It is now more than a decade since Sir Derek Wanless first identified 15. Roberta Blackman-Woods (City of Durham) (Lab): a funding gap in long-term care for the elderly. I welcome What assessment he has made of the conclusions and the Dilnot report, but will the Government act quickly recommendations of the recent report by the to establish a partnership arrangement enabling private Commission on Funding of Care and Support. [65123] money contributed through insurance to be added to some public money, so that that funding gap can be The Minister of State, Department of Health (Paul filled? Burstow): As the Secretary of State said in his statement to the House last week, the Government welcome the Paul Burstow: The answer to the first part of the right report of the Commission on Funding of Care and hon.