Accountability and Transparency in the NHS

rose—

Order. Before the hon. Lady responds—[Interruption.] I am sorry, but does the Opposition Whip hav...

No.

Thank goodness for that.

We need short and concise interventions, because many Members wish...

I congratulate the right hon. Member for Kingston upon Hull West and Hessle (Alan Johnson) on see...

I wonder if the hon. Lady is coming to the point that Francis, a QC, in the course of a two-year ...

I find various elements of the Francis report rather strange, not least that the current chief ex...

Although I appreciate and endorse everything the hon. Lady has said about accountability and the ...

I believe that Francis is right: a regulatory organisation for managers is needed.

We must ...

What happened at Stafford hospital was a betrayal of everything the NHS should stand for. We will...

On the subject of pulling down the shutters, will the right hon. Gentleman confirm that the world...

No, I will not. I was copied into an e-mail by Professor Brian Jarman in mid-March 2010 and, havi...

The shadow Secretary of State and I have been engaged on this issue for a very long time. Will he...

Foundation trust status was not a matter for Ministers. It was a job for Monitor, so it has to an...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

I will make some progress.

The first point is about implementation. I would like to take th...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

No, I am making some progress.

The second area where more transparency and accountability i...

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I will give way one final time to the hon. Member for Cannock Chase (Mr Burley).

I represent the other constituency that is served by Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust. Is t...

No, that is not what I am saying. I commissioned a second-stage—[Interruption.] The hon. Member f...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

No, I will not.

This is a difficult time in the NHS. The chief executive of the NHS has des...

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) on securing th...

As my right hon. Friend knows, I do not agree with his assessment of Sir David Nicholson in this ...

I obviously take on board what my hon. Friend says, but I want to move on to other aspects of the...

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I shall give way on that point, and then I will make some progress.

I am grateful to the Secretary of State. May I follow up on one point that he raised? He said tha...

I absolutely agree with my right hon. Friend. We will respond to the Francis report this month, a...

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I will make some progress and then I will take more interventions.

My response will detail ...

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I will make some progress and then I will take interventions from both sides of the House.

...

I am listening carefully to the Secretary of State but it is not fair to people in the NHS for hi...

I acknowledge the brilliant work done by NHS staff and, contrary to what the right hon. Gentleman...

The Secretary of State is making an interesting speech and there is no way that the Labour party ...

I accept that progress was made in the collection of data and that the previous Government set up...

It is correct that improvements were made in the collation of data. In fact, the Dr Foster data w...

My hon. Friend speaks wisely. Hospitals display 1,400 different pieces of data, but the question ...

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I will make some progress.

The question the right hon. Member for Leigh needs to answer is ...

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I am going to make some progress.

This debate is about accountability. I have been doing th...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

No, the right hon. Gentleman needs to listen to my point. If Labour is truly committed to the NHS...

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Order. I remind Members that there is a seven-minute limit.

1.32 pm

I welcome the opportunity to speak in this debate on our national health service. I resolutely be...

Does the hon. Lady accept, notwithstanding the efforts made in the hospital she mentions, that wh...

Yes, and if MPs have problems, god help members of the public and patients.

We had to demon...

A complaints system sounds very useful. When staff knew that complaints were being assessed and r...

In essence, it encouraged a change of culture. They were not operating in a vacuum, where patient...

I want to follow the hon. Member for West Lancashire (Rosie Cooper) on to very similar territory....

Was the right hon. Gentleman as disturbed as I was to hear that the £500,000 gag at the United Li...

The position I take is the one set out in the Francis report, which was explicitly endorsed by Si...

I accept my right hon. Friend’s challenge about openness and transparency in the way the health s...

I have a lot of sympathy with what my hon. Friend says. The successful delivery of a culture chan...

My right hon. Friend has mentioned the instinct to protect and to circle the wagons. Would he acc...

I agree with my hon. Friend, but I hope he will forgive me if I do not follow him down the road t...

It is a pleasure to follow the right hon. Member for Charnwood (Mr Dorrell), who speaks with a br...

Does my hon. Friend agree that the plans for reorganisation of the trusts south of the river need...

That is precisely what the five Members of Parliament have asked for. Recently, on 28 February, w...

As ever, it is an honour to follow the hon. Member for Vauxhall (Kate Hoey).

Let me begin b...

Was my hon. Friend surprised, as I was, that neither of the Secretaries of State who were in char...

I did find it very strange. In fact, I find the behaviour of both former Secretaries of State str...

May I just correct one thing? The shadow Secretary of State was called to give evidence, but not ...

I am talking about those who were Secretaries of State in the last Administration. In response to...

Surely, as a clinician, the hon. Gentleman would resent the idea of politicians’ interfering in t...

Despite that, nothing changed, did it? The CQC has a terrible reputation in my profession, and to...

Does my hon. Friend share my regret that Opposition Members are groaning in that way? What he is ...

Of course my hon. Friend is right.

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

I must get on, I am afraid. I do apologise.

The point I am trying to make is that a certain...

Well, there’s a man who knows all the answers!

It was four years ago on Monday when I apolo...

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No, I am not giving way—at least not to the hon. Gentleman. I have heard enough.

This is wh...

I am astonished by the line on accountability that the right hon. Gentleman. He was the Secretary...

On the question of a public inquiry, when Francis reported on his first inquiry, commissioned by ...

Does the right hon. Gentleman not accept that the issue was not targets, but it was the failure t...

The Secretary of State is right. Of course there need to be safeguards to ensure any system has a...

In some ways I agree with the right hon. Gentleman, in that I think targets and ensuring that thi...

The principal point about targets is that they reduced waiting list times. They changed a situati...

Will the right hon. Gentleman give way?

No, and I read the hon. Gentleman’s correspondence and it in no way drew attention to what was ha...

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Order. Please resume your seat, Mr Cash.

2.19 pm

I congratulate the hon. Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) on calling for this deba...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Southport (John Pugh), who always makes thoughtful...

I wish to thank my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) and the Backb...

I agree that we do not want to deter people from becoming board members, but surely my hon. Frien...

I would never disagree with that. I entirely agree with what my hon. Friend says, but there is a ...

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) and to pay tribute to him...

I am sorry to interrupt the hon. Lady, but I would like to point out that the same Dr Woodmansey ...

Let us look at what is going to happen in 18 days’ time when the Health And Social Care Act 2012 ...

Does the hon. Lady acknowledge that that is what the NHS Redress Act 2006 was supposed to do? I a...

I cannot answer that; I am not on the Front Bench.

We all agree that there is no place for ...

I believe strongly that we must not only look back properly at what happened at Stafford hospital...

This is a fascinating subject and I am willing to have a look at any correspondence between the h...

We all have lessons to learn about all matters relating to these questions, but the guidelines al...

I am listening carefully to what the hon. Gentleman is saying. It is not strictly true to say tha...

I will let the matter rest at that point for the present purpose.

I move on to the next que...

I congratulate the hon. Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) on securing this debate....

May I thank the right hon. Member for Cynon Valley (Ann Clwyd) and say how sobering it was to lis...

May I just correct the hon. Gentleman? I was not a Minister in the Department of Health on 1 Febr...

I believe that the right hon. Gentleman’s second point is incorrect; as I understand it, the Secr...

Will the hon. Gentleman acknowledge that I asked Robert Francis to conduct two independent inquir...

I will accept, as will, I think, everyone in this House, that the right hon. Gentleman has refuse...

I was appalled to read in the Francis report on the Mid Staffs inquiry the stories of the unneces...

Does my hon. Friend agree that scrutiny to make sure that the dignity of mental health patients i...

Indeed. It is disturbing that the people responsible for advising Ministers on legislation are no...

I completely agree with the approach that the hon. Lady is taking. One of the jobs of the new chi...

That is very good. I hope that the Secretary of State will make that point to the Under-Secretary...

I want to start by thanking the vast majority of staff in the NHS, who go to work every day motiv...

Is my hon. Friend aware that Public Concern at Work, to which I referred in my witness statement ...

I absolutely agree. This is about starting to identify the culture and values of the people we em...

I congratulate the hon. Member for Stafford (Jeremy Lefroy) on his thoughtful contribution to the...

I join other Members in welcoming the Government’s announcement today of a ban on gagging clauses...

In a conference on 4 October 2012, I understand that Sir David Nicholson said that

“the sen...

I do agree with my hon. Friend, and that does seem at odds with the Government’s welcome commitme...

Is my hon. Friend aware that Mr Yeates left in 2009 with an £80,000 pay-off and a six-figure pens...

My hon. Friend is right. Not only did Mr Yeates leave with, I understand, a significant payout, b...

Thank you, Mr. Speaker, for allowing me to speak in this important debate. I congratulate all tho...

My constituent Edward Maitland was a frail man who could not eat solid food following tongue surg...

Does the hon. Gentleman not agree that one characteristic of involving lawyers is that there is a...

Of course I would rather that the money was spent on standards and performance and not on prosecu...

Does my hon. Friend agree that accountability does reside also with the Secretary of State, as se...

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for his point, although it has been examined at length, so I do n...

Two NHS stories were leading the news this morning, both of which are relevant to the subject of ...

This Dr Goodman chairs my local CCG and tried to force Hillingdon hospital to put £13 million of ...

I am grateful for that. I did a company profile for Harmoni. It revealed that, although he might ...

A number of months ago, I raised the case of a person who rejoices in the title “NHS head of bran...

I am sure that all Members will have similar examples. It is an obscenity that millions of pounds...

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Order. Eight Members are trying to catch my eye and we will finish at 5 o’clock, with Charlotte L...

The NHS saved my life when I was 24 with an emergency operation in the middle of the night. It wa...

I am encouraged by the speech from my hon. Friend the Member for South West Bedfordshire (Andrew ...

I am sure the House wishes Anne Jenkin a speedy recovery.

4.23 pm

It is a pleasure to follow my hon. Friend the Member for Harwich and North Essex (Mr Jenkin) and ...

I would like to make two brief points. First, will my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State, w...

I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bristol North West (Charlotte Leslie) on securing th...

I will never forget the last time I saw my mother. It was three days before the general election ...

This debate has been thorough and, at times, moving. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for...

It is a pleasure to contribute to this important debate, and I congratulate my hon. Friend the Me...

This has been an excellent debate. I thank the Secretary of State, who has been here for the dura...