Health and Social Care Update Debate

Full Debate: Read Full Debate
Department: Cabinet Office

Health and Social Care Update

Edward Leigh Excerpts
Thursday 22nd September 2022

(2 years, 1 month ago)

Commons Chamber
Read Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
Edward Leigh Portrait Sir Edward Leigh (Gainsborough) (Con)
- Hansard - -

It is not the fault of successive Conservative Secretaries of State that every time they come forward with a plan, the queues just get longer, the NHS asks for more resources, and more people have to be imported from abroad. The fault is with the system: the last example of collective planning and socialist central control, and ever more targets, like today. It simply does not work. Will the Secretary of State—the Conservative Secretary of State—have an open mind to looking at the social insurance systems of France, Germany and Italy—[Interruption.] Opposition Members can mock but, to be frank, the health outcomes in those countries are far superior to ours. People are fed up with paying all their life and being at the end of the queue. It should not just be the rich who can access private healthcare.

Thérèse Coffey Portrait Dr Coffey
- Hansard - - - Excerpts

I understand why my right hon. Friend makes that point, recognising that many other countries in Europe take that approach. However, that is not the approach we are going to take under this Government.