Results 1-20 of 3,295 for speaker:Jeremy Hunt

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: A and E departments are under great pressure, and the whole House will want to pay tribute to the thousands of doctors, nurses and health care assistants who work extraordinary hours in very challenging conditions. They are there for us when we need them, and we owe them a great debt. More than 1 million more people visit A and E every year compared with just three years ago—those are...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: We will address those problems inside A and Es and the system-wide issues. It is not all about the GP contract, but that is a significant part of it, because confidence in primary care alternatives is a key driver in decisions on whether to go to A and E. We will take responsibility for sorting out those problems, but the Labour party must take responsibility for creating a number of them.

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: What the right hon. Gentleman says would have some credibility if he looked at the facts. Fact: under this Government, we hit the A and E target for last year. Fact: Wales, where Labour is in control, has not hit the A and E target since 2009.

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: The right hon. Gentleman says, “Forget Wales,” but why has he never once been prepared to condemn the appalling failures in A and E in Wales, caused by the Welsh Labour Government’s decision to cut NHS spending by 8%? What he says would have some credibility were he at least prepared to condemn what has happened in Wales, but he never does. The right hon. Gentleman asks for...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: I was answering, in a questioning way, the issue of—

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: And I would always seek to do so, Mr Speaker. Finally, the right hon. Gentleman constantly seeks to run down the performance of the NHS. Where is the recognition of the outstanding performance of the NHS under this Government: the fact that under this Government 400,000 more operations are happening every year than under Labour; the fact that the number of people waiting for more than a year...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: As ever, my right hon. Friend speaks with great wisdom. When it comes to the frail elderly, the key is to have a system that heads off problems before they arrive so that people do not find that they end up having to be rushed into A and E in the middle of the night. That can often be the very worst place for someone with advanced dementia or any condition that makes them extremely fragile...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: I agree that there have been teething problems with 111 and we are addressing those problems. [Hon. Members: “ Teething problems?”] There is laughter on the Opposition Benches. We are hitting our A and E targets at the moment, and 111 is available in more than 90% of the country. We are dealing with those teething issues, but I take on board the right hon. Gentleman’s point....

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: I agree with my hon. Friend. Under this Government, we have 6,000 more doctors than we had under Labour, but we need more people going into general practice as well. [Interruption.] Yes, the training might have started under the Labour Government, but the funding happened under this Government, and it would not be possible if we cut the budget, which is what the Labour party still wants to...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: I am not blaming any doctors; I am blaming the Labour party for making disastrous decisions in office. We are addressing the issues that his party failed to address. If Southampton is not meeting its A and E targets, that is unacceptable. We are talking to all the hospitals struggling to meet those targets, but they all say—I am sure that people in Southampton would say this as...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: By getting rid of the layers of bureaucracy we had with strategic health authorities and primary care trusts—a brave and important decision made by my predecessor—we have been able to invest in more front-line staff. The NHS is doing much more, in terms of the number of operations, outpatient appointments and people being seen by A and E, because we are investing in the front...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: Yes, we have been responsible for a huge increase in performance, many more people being operated on, the virtual elimination of mixed-sex wards, MRSA rates being halved, more operations than ever before, more outpatient operations than ever before and more GP appointments than ever before.

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: I recognise my hon. Friend’s clinical background. When I talk to clinicians in A and E wards, they tell me that the long-term drivers of the pressures they are under are an increase in the number of older people and an increase in the acuteness of the conditions of people coming through the doors. That is why at the heart of our long-term solution is a vulnerable older people’s...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: That target led to many problems, as the hon. Lady well knows. She might remember, from the 2005 general election campaign, the issues of people being denied appointments for three, four or five days because GP surgeries were being paid to meet specific 48-hour appointments. That is one issue. Too often, if people call GPs for an appointment, they are told that the earliest they can have one...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: My hon. Friend speaks extremely wisely. We must do just that, particularly for the frail elderly, people with long-term complex conditions, because they are the people for whom an A and E department can be a bewildering place, especially if it knows nothing about them and cannot access their medical records. Prevention is far better than cure, and I agree that that is one way of doing it.

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. We have failed as an NHS to give the public confidence in there being anything between an A and E department and a GP surgery. Whether they are urgent care centres or other centres, the public do not have that confidence and do not understand their role. We need other things, besides those two extremes, and to do a better job of informing the...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: I agree with my hon. Friend: Frimley Park is a terrific hospital and Andrew Morris a first-class chief executive. In fact, I am visiting Frimley Park in the next month and I will certainly have that discussion with him. My hon. Friend is right that one issue that A and E departments frequently raise is the tariff and the fact that they get paid only 30% of it for any A and E admissions over...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: I have not seen any plans for the closure of St Helier. I know that NHS London is looking at possibilities to improve services in those areas, but, as the hon. Lady will know and should take comfort from, if a major reconfiguration is proposed and then referred to the Secretary of State by the local overview and scrutiny committee, I will not approve the change unless I am convinced that it...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: My hon. Friend rightly draws attention to the importance of the ambulance service, which is also feeling the pressure on A and E departments. We need to help the ambulance service to do its job better too. One thing that it always strikes me would make a huge difference to ambulance services is if staff could access the GP records of someone they were picking up on a 999 call, so that they...

Oral Answers to Questions — Justice: A and E Departments (21 May 2013)

Jeremy Hunt: We certainly intend to address A and E departments’ recruitment issues, which I recognise are one of the causes of the pressure. Over-reliance on locum doctors is not a long-term solution to improving the performance of A and E departments either, so those are both areas that we will be looking at.