Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 2:30 pm on 25 October 2005.
Tom Brake
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (International Development)
2:30,
25 October 2005
If she will make a statement on the future of the "Better Healthcare Closer to Home" project in south-west London.
Jane Kennedy
Minister of State, Department of Health
The intention is that the "Better Healthcare Closer to Home" project will modernise and improve local health services in Merton, Sutton and mid-Surrey, and the proposal is with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for decision. This is a complex decision, and it is taking time to review all the documentation and information that have been supplied.
Tom Brake
Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Liberal Democrat Spokesperson (International Development)
The Minister may be aware that under the "Better Healthcare Closer to Home" proposals, the primary care trusts were to run local care hospitals. Following Sir Nigel Crisp's announcement, clearly that is no longer the case. Can the Minister say who will run those local care hospitals—perhaps a private company, a consortium of general practitioners or even the local authority? Can she also say what extra action she can take to reassure PCT employees who are—
Michael Martin
Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission, Speaker of the House of Commons, Chair, Speaker's Committee on the Electoral Commission
Order. One supplementary is fine for the Minister. That will do.
Jane Kennedy
Minister of State, Department of Health
We are talking about a £350 million investment in new and refurbished hospitals that will benefit the constituents of Tom Brake with better, more modern health care services. His point about PCTs has already been answered by my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State. There is nothing I can say to add to it. He must listen to the answers he is given.
It is interesting to hear the hon. Gentleman make this point, because decentralisation and the offer of additional charges to be levied for higher quality non-clinical services, paid by those willing to pay them, are precisely the policies on which his party fought the last election.
Graham Stuart
Conservative, Beverley and Holderness
Health care closer to home is hardly being delivered by cuts and closures of community hospitals up and down this country. My constituents in Hornsea and Withernsea are furious with this Government. What is the Minister going to do about reversing those cuts in beds and services at our community hospitals so that we can have care closer to home?
Jane Kennedy
Minister of State, Department of Health
It is a pleasure to debate with the hon. Gentleman exactly where and how to invest £350 million in new hospitals. When his party was in government, we would have been holding flag days to provide them.
Secretary of State was originally the title given to the two officials who conducted the Royal Correspondence under Elizabeth I. Now it is the title held by some of the more important Government Ministers, for example the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs.
Ministers make up the Government and almost all are members of the House of Lords or the House of Commons. There are three main types of Minister. Departmental Ministers are in charge of Government Departments. The Government is divided into different Departments which have responsibilities for different areas. For example the Treasury is in charge of Government spending. Departmental Ministers in the Cabinet are generally called 'Secretary of State' but some have special titles such as Chancellor of the Exchequer. Ministers of State and Junior Ministers assist the ministers in charge of the department. They normally have responsibility for a particular area within the department and are sometimes given a title that reflects this - for example Minister of Transport.
Primary care is a term used to describe community-based health services which are usually the first (and often the only) point of contact that patients make within the NHS. It covers services provided by family doctors (GPs), community and practice nurses, community therapists (physio, occupational, etc.), pharmacists, chiropodists, optometrists, and dentists.
A Primary Care Trust in the NHS is a regional body in the NHS, catering to a specific geographical region, which is responsible for providing primary care to the individuals within that area.
These primary care trusts have budgetary responsibility, and are tasked by the Department of Health with improving the health of the community, securing the provision of high quality services, and integrating health and social care locally.
