Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the strategic health authorities which did not achieve full compliance with the European working time directive for junior doctors in each month since August.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport when he will make an announcement on the priorities within the Targeted Programme of Trunk Road Improvement.
Mr Archie Norman: I am very glad to have the opportunity to devote the next hour and half to a discussion of nursing care in the NHS. I want to approach the subject constructively and I hope that the Minister will feel able to do the same and respond to some of the matters that I raise. I do not intend to claim that there is a crisis in nursing care in the NHS. I shall, however, make a case for dealing with...
Mr Archie Norman: The hon. Gentleman makes an interesting point. Not only among GPs, but in the broader health community, we have made progress in making health care work more family-friendly, and nurses working shifts are increasingly conscious of their relative position. Having established the background in so far as it is possible with the figures available, I want to discuss the changing nature of the role...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health (1) what the total value of outstanding invoices over 90 days old owed by NHS Professionals to private recruitment agencies has been in each quarter since its inception; (2) how many placements for (a) doctors, (b) nurses and (c) corporate staff have been filled by NHS Professionals with (i) NHS Professionals staff and (ii) staff sourced from...
Mr Archie Norman: Does the Minister recall the Transport Select Committee saying that there was not much point in spending billions of pounds making trains accessible if disabled people could not get on to the platforms in the first place in order to get on to the trains? Is she aware that the then Minister of State, the hon. Member for Pontypridd (Dr. Howells), wrote to me in June to say that there would be...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what the budget for NHS Professionals has been in each year since its inception.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Transport what the budget for the Access for All fund is, broken down by rail region; and if he will list the criteria for prioritising its distribution.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what recent representations he has received about the costs of remunerating medical staff who have signed a formal opt-out from the Working Time Directive.
Mr Archie Norman: I just want to clarify that my point was not that cleaning is necessarily a low-status job, but that it should not be. Cleaning is as much a specialist and critical part of the control of the ward environment as any other role there. In fact, I specifically said that we must get to a stage at which we take cleaners and their contribution as seriously as we do that of consultants, nurses and...
Mr Archie Norman: I congratulate the hon. Member for Strathkelvin and Bearsden (Mr. Lyons) on instigating the debate and making a knowledgeable and constructive speech, with almost all of which I am in agreement. MRSA is not just a serious problem today, but a growing one. The incidence of MRSA has grown rapidly in the past 10 years, and some experts believe that if we do not take action it could double...
Mr Archie Norman: The hon. Gentleman touches on an important point. One of the great problems with cleaners is that it is a low-status job. They are not involved in a team, and there is limited work satisfaction. They do not feel that they are striving towards a goal and achieving things for patients in the way that other people in the hospital are. That means that those who take up the job are often people...
Mr Archie Norman: We are in danger of violently agreeing. It is not my intention to be critical of the cleaning staff that we have; quite the contrary. The way forward is to create a workplace environment in which there can be more of the type of staff to which the hon. Gentleman referred: those who are dedicated because they have great satisfaction in coming to work, and because they feel that they are part...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs what the budget for (a) research and development in and (b) marketing support to the horticulture industry was in each year since 1997.
Mr Archie Norman: We had a very constructive debate on this issue last week, but may I ask the Minister specifically about the patient environment action team inspections and the rate of hospital infection? My local hospital in Tunbridge Wells was recently subject to an undercover investigation by the BBC that resulted in very worrying revelations about the standards of cleanliness, and the ubiquitous...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the months in which Patient Environment and Assessment Team inspections have taken place in each year since inspections began.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what action can be taken in the domestic courts against NHS Trusts that fail to comply with the Working Time Directive.
Mr Archie Norman: As many hon. Members, including the Secretary of State and my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley), said the problem of hospital-acquired infection is not new. It is a decade-old struggle, which was temporarily masked by the advent of effective antibiotics. My father worked at Great Ormond Street hospital before we had antibiotics. We can understand why an emphasis...
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS hospital trust (a) Chairmen, (b) Chief Executives and (c) other board members have received training in administering hygiene and infection control regimes.
Mr Archie Norman: To ask the Secretary of State for Health what (a) representations he has received and (b) evidence he has collected regarding the effect of advance publication of hospital cleaning target specifications on the cleanliness of hospitals.
