Oral Answers to Questions — Health – in the House of Commons at 11:30 am on 25 February 2014.
What progress he has made on improving out-of-hospital care for the frail and elderly.
We will ensure that everyone over the age of 75 has a named GP, responsible for delivering proactive care for our most vulnerable older people in the best traditions of family doctors. Through our £3.8 billion better care fund, we are also merging the health and social care systems to provide more joined-up health and social care.
I welcome the steps that my right hon. Friend is taking to improve and enhance the quality of care for the elderly. Given that east Cheshire has one of the fastest-growing ageing populations in the UK, will he tell the House what specific steps he is taking to improve out-of-hospital care in and around Macclesfield? Furthermore, does he agree that it is vital that appropriate funding is in place to take care of the elderly and most vulnerable patients?
May I congratulate my hon. Friend on the campaigning work he does in his constituency on health matters? I commend the Eastern Cheshire clinical commissioning group for its “Caring Together” programme and for the fact that Cheshire was selected as one of the 14 integrated care pioneers. I hope that it will blaze a trail in joining up the barriers that have bedevilled our health and social care system for too long, with the result that his constituents are not pushed from pillar to post because of arguments about budgets and people not being able to be discharged on time. I think his area is blazing a trail.
The national dementia strategy has been fundamental in improving care for many frail and elderly people with dementia living in the community. The strategy is due to expire in April—in two months’ time. Will the Secretary of State give a commitment to the House now that the national dementia strategy will be renewed? I understand that we have the Prime Minister’s dementia challenge, but, like many of us, Prime Ministers come and go. We need a strategy and not simply the Prime Minister’s challenge.
I can assure the right hon. Lady that this Prime Minister is here to stay. Indeed, I can also reassure her that the national dementia strategy is here to stay. As she has announced that she is stepping down at the end of this Parliament, may I thank her for her campaigning on dementia, which, I think, came from a family connection with the issue? She has attended many of my dementia meetings and the G8 dementia summit. She has made a really important contribution, and I thank her for that.
May I follow up on the question that the right hon. Lady has just asked? The Secretary of State has said that the national strategy is here to stay and that is very welcome, but the national strategy was drafted with the intention that it would expire this year. It would be useful if he now indicated the intention to refresh and update it so that we have a clear road map for at least the next decade.
I know that my right hon. Friend showed great interest in this issue when he was in my Department. When I say that the strategy is here to stay, I mean that it is here to be refreshed and updated. We are subscribing to some big new ambitions, including that by the time of the next election two thirds of people with dementia will be diagnosed and have a proper care plan and support for them and their families. That is a big improvement on the 39% of people who were diagnosed when we came to office. There is much work to do, but I assure him that we are absolutely committed to delivering.
Some hospitals are making a virtue out of quick discharge for their stroke victims. Is the Secretary of State convinced that elderly stroke victims, perhaps those without people to advocate on their behalf, are getting appropriate care and that their care and rehabilitation are not being scrimped or rationed?
No, I am not convinced. We need to do much better when it comes to the discharge of vulnerable older people, especially when they leave hospital not cured and still with a long-term condition. They may be recovering from a stroke or dementia or any other condition. We need to have much better links between hospitals and GPs and to have named accountable GPs in the communities looking after those very people.
I was disappointed with the allocation of funding by NHS England for care around the country because it did not reflect the demands of the elderly population. People in my constituency have to do a 200-mile round trip to receive support such as cardiac care. Will the Secretary of State ask it to think again for future years?
My hon. Friend is right to campaign hard on that issue. I agree that the funding formula does not always do justice to people, especially those in sparsely populated rural areas. I know that NHS England is trying to do what it can to move to a more equitable funding formula, but it is not something that can be done overnight. I encourage her to keep pressing on that issue.
Welcome back, Mr Speaker. Easy access to GPs is a key part of out-of-hospital care for elderly and frail people. Days after the election, the Prime Minister scrapped Labour’s guarantee that gave patients a GP appointment within two working days, and took away funding that kept thousands of surgeries open in the evenings and at weekends. Now the Royal College of General Practitioners is warning that 34 million patients will fail to get an appointment. Will the Secretary of State listen to the Patients Association, bring back the 48-hour appointment guarantee and help older people to see their doctor when needed?
The reason that we got rid of that guarantee was that the number of people who were able to see a GP within 48 hours was falling in the last year in which the target was in place. It was not working, and that is why the British Medical Association and the Royal College of General Practitioners were against it. In the same survey that the hon. Gentleman quoted, the RCGP said it estimated that there had been a 10% increase in the number of GP appointments compared with when his Government were in office.