Tuesday Volume 600 13 October 2015 No. 48 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 13 October 2015 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2015 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Open Parliament licence, which is published at www.parliament.uk/site-information/copyright/. 145 13 OCTOBER 2015 146 about their exciting plans. What really struck me was House of Commons how they are talking to different bits of the health and social care system in a way that has never happened Tuesday 13 October 2015 before. It is really exciting and I think it really will be in the vanguard of what can happen in the NHS. The House met at half-past Eleven o’clock Helen Jones (Warrington North) (Lab): Many people in my constituency are struggling to see a GP from PRAYERS Monday to Friday. Warrington has fewer GPs than it had in 2010, despite a rise in population. The number of unfilled GP vacancies quadrupled under the previous [MR SPEAKER in the Chair] Government. How does the Secretary of State expect to produce a seven-day service when he cannot properly staff the service from Monday to Friday? Oral Answers to Questions Mr Hunt: I shall tell the hon. Lady how I expect to do it. We are, in fact, making very good progress. By March next year, a third of the country will be able to HEALTH access routine GP appointments at evenings and weekends. We do need more GPs. I agree with her that it takes too long to get a GP appointment, but we are doing something The Secretary of State was asked— about it. That is why we have announced plans to General Practice/Primary Care recruit an estimated 5,000 more GPs. That will be a 15% increase in the number of GPs, the biggest increase in 1. Suella Fernandes (Fareham) (Con): What plans his the history of the NHS. Department has to increase capacity in general practice and primary care. [901456] John Cryer (Leyton and Wanstead) (Lab): It is widely known that there is a serious lack of doctors who want 6. Mike Wood (Dudley South) (Con): What plans his to go into general practice. At the same time, the Department has to increase capacity in general practice Secretary of State is guilty of an abject failure to engage and primary care. [901462] with the British Medical Association in negotiations on junior doctors’ practices. On that basis, how the hell can The Secretary of State for Health (Mr Jeremy Hunt): he promise to increase general practice? It is a pleasure to be back, Mr Speaker. By 2020, we will increase the primary and community care workforce by Mr Hunt: Just look at our track record in the previous at least 10,000, including an estimated 5,000 doctors Parliament: we increased the number of GPs by 1,700—a working in general practice, as well as more practice 5% increase. We are, on the back of a strong economy, nurses, district nurses and pharmacists. putting in funding that will make it possible to increase that number even more. The hon. Gentleman talks Suella Fernandes: Fareham community hospital is an about the BMA. I simply say that the people refusing to example of Labour’s expensive PFI gone wrong. At a negotiate are not the Government, but the BMA. cost of £28 million, it remains underused, half-built and subject to complex governance structures. What will my Several hon. Members rose— right hon. Friend do to enable better use of this facility to allow provision for minor injuries, a GP practice and Mr Speaker: Order. May I just gently advise the hon. more primary care? Member for Croydon South (Chris Philp) that he should not stand at this point? He has Question 3. It will be Mr Hunt: My hon. Friend is right, regrettably, that very easily reached, so he should not stand before then. the PFI projects under the previous Labour Government There is no merit in doing that at all. created a lot of unsustainable debt. I know her local clinical commissioning group is meeting GP practices Dr Andrew Murrison (South West Wiltshire) (Con): and working with community health partnerships to see Unfortunately, every time I open a page of my local if they can progress the idea she is campaigning for. I newspaper these days I am met with the beaming face of hope to visit her in the near future to discuss it myself. yet another general practitioner in his mid-50s who has decided to throw in his hand after many, many years of Mike Wood: Will my right hon. Friend join me in serving his community. These doctors are best placed to welcoming the £2.7 million in vanguard funding given manage patients in primary care and ensure that they to Dudley to provide primary care services out in the do not have to go to secondary care or A&E. What community? This will not only improve the level of analysis has my right hon. Friend made of the reasons clinical and social services provided to people in Dudley why these experienced professionals are leaving the South, but relieve pressures on Russells Hall hospital. profession prematurely, and what will his reforms do to stem the tide? Mr Hunt: I welcome my hon. Friend to his post. I am not sure I have had a question from him before. I know Mr Hunt: My hon. Friend makes a very important quite a bit about the Dudley vanguard programme, point. We have done extensive analysis, because of our because I shared a taxi to Manchester station with the commitment to transform the role of general practice, entire Dudley team. They told me, at close quarters, as to what the issues are. They include too much 147 Oral Answers13 OCTOBER 2015 Oral Answers 148 bureaucracy and form-filling, which means that doctors moment 40,000 young people are being refused mental do not spend enough time with patients, and a sense health treatment. What guarantees can the Minister that successive Governments have not invested in general give that the money promised by the Chancellor recently practice and primary care. That is exactly what we seek will actually be made available and that trusts will not to turn around with the “Five Year Forward View”. continue to cut mental health budgets? Ms Margaret Ritchie (South Down) (SDLP): What Alistair Burt: The hon. Lady makes a fair point. discussions have taken place with the devolved While we invest money nationally in services, people Administrations regarding the introduction of the new complain that locally clinical commissioning groups GP contract, particularly the junior doctor contract, have not been funnelling the money down. Two things given the exodus of junior doctors to Australia? should help: first, for the first time the national access and working time targets, which the Government have Mr Hunt: We also have Australian paramedics working introduced, will provide a means of monitoring what in the UK, particularly London, so that traffic goes CCGs are doing, and secondly, the new scorecard for both ways, but as the hon. Lady will know, health is a CCGs will look explicitly to ensure that a proportion of devolved matter, and people follow their own paths. For the increase to a CCG goes into mental health services. England, we are determined to eliminate the weekend The hon. Lady will also be pleased to know that in her effect. Every year, there are 11,000 excess deaths as a own CCG area there will be an extra £521,000 for result of inadequate cover at weekends, and we do not children’s mental health services. want that to continue. Mental Health Services (Children and Young People) Bill Esterson: Some 23% of the adult prison population were in care as children and many of them have poor mental health. Will the Minister ensure that mental 2. Ruth Cadbury (Brentford and Isleworth) (Lab): health services are in place for children in care to make How much additional investment there will be in children the greatest contribution possible to improving their life and young people’s mental health services in 2015-16. chances, and not least to ensure we reduce the numbers [901457] ending up in prison? 5. Rushanara Ali (Bethnal Green and Bow) (Lab): How much additional investment there will be in children Alistair Burt: Yes, the hon. Gentleman makes a point and young people’s mental health services in 2015-16. made by successive Governments: care outcomes are terrible and the earlier the intervention the better. We [901461] are encouraging the engagement of early prevention therapies, including for those in care, and for the first 7. Bill Esterson (Sefton Central) (Lab): How much time the Government have appointed a dedicated mental additional investment there will be in children and health Minister, in the Department for Education, to young people’s mental health services in 2015-16. further promote resilience and work more closely with [901463] young children, including those in care. The Minister for Community and Social Care (Alistair Burt): We are investing an additional £173 million this Andrea Jenkyns (Morley and Outwood) (Con): Infection year, which includes £30 million specifically for eating control in the community is a great way to reduce disorders. We are taking a targeted and phased approach preventable illness. In November, I will be launching a to the additional investment to develop capacity and handwashing campaign in Parliament that I hope will capability across health, education and children’s services, have cross-party support.