Contributions
1,637 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessMy hon. Friend can rest assured that he has my support as he keeps his eye on the temporary nature of this closure. I share his desire for it to be temporary. I would make this…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessThe right hon. Gentleman is right to call for an evidence-based approach. That is why the Government are not mandating mask use across the NHS or social care. We are supporting…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessI thank the hon. Member for being helpful in two ways. First, it is always good to hear voices from the right making the case for vaccine uptake. That contrasts the Conservative…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessI am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for giving me the opportunity to say, for the avoidance of doubt, that accident and emergency is for accidents and emergency situations. It is…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessFirst, I thank the staff of Derriford hospital. I have visited it a number of times over the years, and have seen them coping with pressures at the height of summer, during peak…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessMy hon. Friend is right to raise the issue of disruption. Although we have carefully laid plans to manage industrial action this week, the thing I am really worried about as we…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessRegardless of the result today, I think that the BMA is finding that I am not a soft touch and that we will not accede to a completely unreasonable and unaffordable demand. The…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessThat is part of GPs’ contractual obligations. Accurate reporting is absolutely central, both from an ethics and integrity perspective, and because it helps to inform us about the…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessWe will review eligibility, distribution and means of accessing the vaccine in the usual way. People should enjoy themselves over the Christmas period. It is a time for family and…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessI thank my hon. Friend for his support and questions. We will indeed reflect on our performance after this winter, just as we did after last winter. He raised interesting points…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessWe are doing much of what the Liberal Democrat spokesperson asks; the hon. Lady is absolutely right that we need to focus on delayed discharge and demand management, and the…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessIt is one thing for the BMA to have rejected the offer we made; it is quite something else to have done that following a 28.9% pay rise—but we are where we are. The thing that I…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessI echo my hon. Friend’s thanks to frontline NHS staff for what they are doing against a very challenging backdrop, which will be made all the more difficult this coming week. I…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessTwo things: first, we will certainly give serious consideration to the point made by my hon. Friend the Member for Walthamstow (Ms Creasy)—the JCVI will do that in the usual way,…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessThe NHS’s national medical director says: “This unprecedented wave of super flu is leaving the NHS facing a worst-case scenario”. This is backed up by the data. On any given day…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessI will ignore the political nonsense about banning strikes and clamping down on trade unions. I will, however, take on directly the charge that we have not prepared for this…15 Dec 2025HANSARDNHS: Winter PreparednessIt is as if the ghost of Christmas past has come to visit: one of my predecessors is here to remind the BMA of what it used to have to deal with. Perhaps the BMA will be a bit…15 Dec 2025HANSARDTees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust: Statutory InquiryOn three occasions this year, I have met with some of the families who lost their loved ones under the care of Tees, Esk and Wear Valleys NHS Foundation Trust. I would like to…11 Dec 2025HANSARD Resident Doctors: Industrial ActionI thank my hon. Friend for what he says and for the experience he brings to bear. I hope his urging is heeded by the BMA. I can give him that assurance. I think its operational…10 Dec 2025HANSARD Resident Doctors: Industrial ActionMy hon. Friend is absolutely right. I do wish the BMA would take yes for an answer sometimes; I would like it even more if the BMA gave yes as an answer to me once a while, but…10 Dec 2025