Results 1-20 of 65 for foundation hospital speaker:Alan Milburn

[Mr. Eric Illsley in the Chair] — Social Mobility (26 Jun 2007)

Alan Milburn: ..., where power is located at the lowest possible level consistent with the wider public good. If it is possible for people to exercise power individually—people can do so by choosing a hospital or school that is right for them—that is where power should be located. When it is not possible for people to exercise power individually—for example most of us would have some...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (3 Jun 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: The Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill states that members of each NHS foundation trust board will be chosen by election. Direct elections will help to ensure that NHS hospitals work more closely with the local communities they serve.

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (3 Jun 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: My hon. Friend is right about that. The principle is that we want to ensure that local staff and local members of the community have a greater say in how local hospitals such as his own, which have applied to become an NHS foundation trust, are run. That must be right. If we are to achieve more responsive local services, with the best will in the world, that cannot be imposed from Whitehall...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (3 Jun 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: As my right hon. Friend and I have discussed previously, the position of specialist hospitals is somewhat at variance with that of most district general hospitals, for example. [Interruption.] Although the hon. Member for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) laughs, he is the first to say that the NHS is not a uniform service. Indeed it is not. Specialist hospitals have a very different make-up and serve a...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: ...a new contract in a ballot, the Bill will legislate for it. The Bill puts power and resources in the hands of local staff and local communities by strengthening primary care trusts and creating NHS foundation trusts. These reforms match the resources that are now going into the NHS and that are bringing about improvements for patients. Our national health service is the fastest growing...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: I know that my hon. Friend has been concerned about these matters in the past and continues to be so. NHS foundation trusts will have an entirely different accountability structure from the present one, where accountability is all upwards to the Department of Health, bureaucrats and Ministers. In future, with NHS foundation hospitals the accountability will genuinely be to local people and to...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: Obviously, the measures governing NHS foundation trusts apply only to England. The way in which the national health service is run in Wales is a matter for the Welsh Assembly, and rightly so. However, where there is patient movement, it is perfectly possible that patients from Wales who have been treated in English hospitals will have the opportunity to have a say, to vote and to exercise a...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: It is slightly premature for the hon. Gentleman to say that his local hospital has been told that it will not become an NHS foundation hospital for another five years. Nobody has been told that. Thirty-two hospitals have applied at the moment, and I will consider those before too long. Then, no doubt, there will be further waves of NHS foundation hospitals. In the meantime, we will try to get...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: I shall reserve judgment on that matter. I know that my hon. Friend has a close working relationship with Dryburn hospital in Durham city and that, like me, he is full of admiration for the work of its consultants. Overwhelmingly—this is not true of everybody in any walk of life—consultants do a very good job of work for the national health service and NHS patients. However, if...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: ...take fewer interventions for now, perhaps I shall make a little progress. My hon. Friend will find that when we give the go ahead—I want to be able to do so—for the first wave of NHS foundation hospitals, many of them will be in precisely the sort of areas about which we should be most concerned. They include the poorest communities, such as Liverpool, Bradford, Sunderland and...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: ...service. There may be different ways of applying it—I do not know—but at this stage, on Second Reading, the Bill is about establishing the very principle of how we move forward with NHS foundation hospitals.

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: I shall not give way to my hon. Friend for a moment or two, if he does not mind. Our reforms are about opening up the system so that it becomes more responsive to the patients who use it. NHS foundation trusts are part of that wider reform programme. They are about giving the staff who provide the services—doctors, nurses, managers and other front-line staff—greater control over...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: I shall give way shortly, but I have given way many times and many other colleagues want to speak. [Interruption.] I am generous and I hope that others will reciprocate later. Hospitals have told me that they will use the extra resources to invest in new services not only in the hospital but in the community. Clause 12 provides that they can borrow only what they can afford to repay. To those...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: No, not for a moment or two. I have given way a lot. Some of my hon. Friends have expressed anxiety that NHS foundation trusts undermine the new primary care trusts. I want to reassure them that that is not the case. National health service foundation trusts will rely on PCTs for their income in the same way as every other NHS hospital. Primary care trusts will continue to have the power to...

Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill (7 May 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: No. I thoroughly respect the fact that the hon. Lady has worked in the health service. However, I shall not give way. NHS foundation trusts will not be able to make a profit or pay a dividend. There will be a legal lock on their NHS assets, ensuring their continued use for NHS patients, and the proportion of income that foundation trusts can earn from private patients will be capped at...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (29 Apr 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his support for the principles of earned autonomy and greater freedom for NHS hospitals: that must be the right way forward. As far as the borrowing powers are concerned, I do not think that that would be a sensible thing to do. If we are to have genuine freedom among NHS providers, that is exactly what it should be. I say to my hon. Friend and to other...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (29 Apr 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: ...institutions. He has been closely associated with the NHS in his local area. Of course, we will consider all the applications favourably. He knows that, to date, 32 NHS trusts have applied for NHS foundation trust status. I am currently assessing those applications. We intend that, over a four to five-year period, every NHS hospital should have the opportunity of becoming an NHS foundation...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (29 Apr 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: ...bad one, and that it is very much in keeping with the values to which both he and I subscribe. On his specific question, he will be aware, having read the Bill, that the governance structure of NHS foundation trusts works like this: the majority of places on the board of hospital governors are reserved for members of the local community. It is possible for an individual NHS trust, in...

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (18 Mar 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: The Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill published on 13 March sets out our legislative proposals for NHS foundation trusts. Subject to Parliament, I expect that, in four to five years, every NHS hospital will have the opportunity of becoming an NHS foundation hospital.

Oral Answers to Questions — Health: Foundation Hospitals (18 Mar 2003)

Mr Alan Milburn: I suppose that I should say that I am grateful to the right hon. Gentleman for his support. However, there is a small matter of difference between him and me on foundation hospitals, as he calls them: I believe that those hospitals should be part of the NHS. They should have greater freedom, greater local control and greater local accountability, but none the less they should be subject to...