Results 1-20 of 4,169 for speaker:Gillian Merron

Written Answers — Health: Hepatitis (23 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: The Department has set a national framework in the Hepatitis C Action Plan for England (2004) for the national health service and other key stakeholders to improve the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of hepatitis C. A copy has already been placed in the Library. Primary care trusts (PCTs) are responsible for implementing the action plan at the local level and commissioning services from...

Written Answers — Health: Mobile Phones: Health Hazards (23 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: The Department does not intend to change the leaflet on mobile telephones and health. The advice given to the public remains as in our current leaflet on mobile phones, which can be viewed on the Department's website at: www.dh.gov.uk/en/Publicationsandstatistics/Publications/Publ icationsPolicyAndGuidance/DH_4123979 and companion leaflet on base stations at:...

Written Answers — Health: Pregnancy: Influenza (23 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: Pregnant women are particularly vulnerable to complications should they get swine flu and so the Department strongly recommends that pregnant women should have the vaccine. Health care staff have been given the extensive information to provide to their patients about the vaccine, how it will protect them and how it has been tested to ensure safety. This information is available at:...

Written Answers — Health: Swine Flu: Vaccination (23 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: At this stage, no national health service wide data are available on the uptake of swine flu vaccinations given either by general practitioners (GPs) to priority groups or by trusts to frontline health and social care workers. The Department plans to release NHS-wide vaccine uptake data on a regular basis both for vaccinations administered by GPs to priority groups and by trusts to frontline...

Written Ministerial Statements — Health: Childhood Obesity (23 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: On the 19 November 2009, the NHS Information Centre issued the following errata statement: "As a result of a detailed validation carried out during the production of the Health Survey for England (HSE), 2008, the following error has been identified in the Health Survey for England series. The error pertains to childhood obesity data for the years 1995 to 2007 inclusive and will affect all...

Written Ministerial Statements — Health: Report of Exercise Peak Practice (19 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: A report of Exercise Peak Practice has been placed in the Library. Copies are available to hon. Members from the Vote Office. Exercise Peak Practice consisted of 10 strategic, "tabletop" exercises, one led by each strategic health authority in England to help prepare for a possible second wave of swine flu this winter. The events achieved the intended aim of exercising the management of the...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Rother Valley (Mr. Barron), the Chairman of the Health Select Committee, on ensuring that hon. Members have the opportunity to debate the Committee's vital report on the important issue of health inequalities. At the outset, may I say that I am grateful to my right hon. Friend for his encouragement and support for the seriousness with which...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: We have agreement and harmony on the issue already. May I make some general points before referring to the specific matters raised, because I want to allow my right hon. Friend to have the last word, as is right and proper? Tackling health inequalities and improving the health of people in disadvantaged areas and groups has been a priority for the Government since 1997. A comprehensive...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: Before I do so, it is worth saying that life expectancy has improved faster in the non-spearhead areas than in the disadvantaged spearhead areas. It is true that the gap has not narrowed as we would wish, but infant mortality is at an historic low level, even for disadvantaged groups. In each of the past three years, the gap has narrowed and if that trend continues, that aspect of the target...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: I do not share the doom and gloom of the hon. Gentleman—although I am sure that he did not intend to come across in quite that way—and I think it is important to show where progress has been made. Perhaps he will allow me to explain why I feel that we should acknowledge that this is a difficult matter to turn around and why it would be wrong of me to suggest otherwise. I know that...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: I will in one second. I want to say up front—this matter has been mentioned—that I very much look forward to Professor Sir Michael Marmot's report, who I recently had the opportunity to meet. His report will review health inequalities and will set us on a firmer footing for the development of a national cross-Government health equalities strategy.

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: I will give way to the hon. Member for Hemel Hempstead (Mike Penning) first. The review will report to Ministers at the end of this year and will be published in the new year. Before I take interventions, it is important that I set out the challenge. Health inequalities are extremely difficult to change. They start early in life and continue into not just old age, but future generations....

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: The hon. Gentleman mentions a matter that I was coming on to—as did the hon. Members for North Norfolk (Norman Lamb) and for Wellingborough (Mr. Bone). I am happy to talk about that now. Within the NHS, the target revenue allocations to primary care trusts are based on the fair funding formula, as we have discussed, and are recommended by the independent Advisory Committee on Resource...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: Perhaps the hon. Gentleman will allow me to answer some of his earlier questions. It is important to remember that the allocations for 2009-10 and 2010-11 show an average PCT growth of something like 5.5 per cent. a year, with minimum growth figures of 5.2 per cent. in 2009-10 and 5.1 per cent. in 2010-11. The most under-target PCTs will benefit from the highest increases in funding. Over the...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: The hon. Gentleman has previously secured a useful Adjournment debate on that issue, to which I responded. Of course, there are differences in responses to prostate cancer, but that issue is not simply about the inequalities that we are talking about today. There is a whole range of factors to consider, but I am sure that you would say, Mr. Bayley, that they would be better discussed in a...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: I have already outlined the progress that has been made on that, and I assure the hon. Gentleman, as my colleague Ministers have, that we will continue to make progress. Comments have been made about the bleak outlook before us, and I have expressed my concerns about the picture that the hon. Member for North Norfolk painted of the situation. The latest life expectancy data for 2006-08 showed...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: That is the theme that I have been trying to develop. It is true that inequality remains a challenge, but it is not true that no progress has been made. That is the only point to which I draw the hon. Gentleman's attention. We know that it will not be easy to reverse the trend of widening health inequalities and to improve the health of all. There is no single formula or blueprint for...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: rose—

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: We have already had that argument. I know the hon. Gentleman still resents the effort the Government have agreed to make on tobacco control, but the fact is that the Bill was always written to allow either restrictions or a ban, as he knows. We said we would test the will of the House and that is what we did. Rightly, the House spoke and the Government gave effect to that. I gently suggest...

[Hugh Bayley in the Chair] — Health Inequalities (12 Nov 2009)

Gillian Merron: My hon. Friend always makes clear and informed points. As I said earlier, health inequalities widened over those 20 years because of inaction, and now we are in a position—[Interruption.] Opposition Members may not like it, but there has been an improvement and, more importantly, there are moves forward. I am afraid the idea that all that can be turned around overnight is totally...