Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Poulter and Paul Blomfield

Tuesday 24th February 2015 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

T8. When I asked the Minister last June what guarantees he would give to GP practices at risk because of the withdrawal of the minimum practice income guarantee, I was told that NHS England would ensure threatened practices “get to the right place.”—[Official Report, 10 June 2014; Vol. 582, c. 400.]Over the past seven months, those discussions have not alleviated the threat to two highly regarded practices in my constituency that face closure. Will the Minister agree to meet me and representatives of the practices to discuss what is really happening, and to consider what can be done to save them?

[Dr Poulter]

I am very happy to meet the hon. Gentleman, but he will be aware that the move away from the historical funding formula towards a per head or capitation formula is a move in the right direction. If there are certain local concerns, I am very happy to meet him to discuss them.

Oral Answers to Questions

Debate between Dan Poulter and Paul Blomfield

Tuesday 10th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield (Sheffield Central) (Lab)]

11. What assessment he has made of the potential effect on health outcomes of phasing out minimum practice income guarantee funding from GP practices in England.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Dr Daniel Poulter)]

The minimum practice income guarantee payment is unfair because practices serving very similar populations are paid very different amounts per patient. The payments are being phased out over a seven-year period to allow practices time to adjust. The money released by doing this will be reinvested in the basic payments made to all general medical services practices, which are based on numbers of patients and key determinants of practice workload, such as the age and health needs of patients.

[Paul Blomfield]

The minimum practice income guarantee was introduced to meet the specific needs of specific practices. Those needs have not changed. NHS England has drawn up a list of 100 practices across the country that will be threatened by its withdrawal. Five are in Sheffield and two are in my constituency. Will the Minister give a guarantee that no practice will close as a result of the withdrawal of the minimum practice income guarantee, and will he provide the funding to achieve that?

[Dr Poulter]

The point is this: the funding system set up by the previous Government was based on historical funding and did not necessarily recognise the needs of patients. One practice might have been paid more for historical reasons than another practice next door that might have been treating more patients. That was unfair; we have changed it. NHS England is working at local level with practices that are, for whatever reason, in financial difficulties to make sure that it can help them get to the right place.

NHS Reorganisation

Debate between Dan Poulter and Paul Blomfield

Wednesday 16th March 2011 Commons Chamber

[Paul Blomfield]

What bears eloquent testimony to who really cares about the NHS is our record. Before 1997, I remember patients being stacked up in hospital corridors in Sheffield every winter because the hospitals could not find beds. That situation has been transformed under Labour over the past 13 years.

The Prime Minister has tried hard to reassure the public that the NHS is safe in Tory hands, but he has failed. In January, a major survey of the British public demonstrated that only 27% of people back moves to allow profit-making companies to increase their role in the NHS. That reflects the way in which our people treasure the NHS and its values, and that is why the Government did not have the confidence to say at the general election what their real intention was: the deconstruction and privatisation of the NHS by stealth.

It is not only the public whom the Prime Minister has failed to convince. The Secretary of State told us again today, as the Government have done many times during discourse on the issue, that we should trust doctors—those who understand the NHS.

[Dr Poulter]

Will the hon. Gentleman give way?

[Paul Blomfield]

I am afraid that I will not; I said that I would give way once and then make progress.

I hope that the Government will take their own advice and listen to doctors, because yesterday the doctors spoke clearly and powerfully with one voice, despite reports that we have seen that under the proposals, doctors could earn up to £300,000. At the first emergency conference of the British Medical Association in 19 years, they sent a clear message to the Government: “Think again.”

Five of Sheffield’s hospitals are in my constituency, and I want to focus on the consequences of ending the cap on private income earned by hospital trusts without providing any safeguards. As hospitals face squeezed budgets, they will inevitably look at every opportunity to enhance their income. At one level, they might see the chance of offering additional services such as en suite facilities to those who can afford to pay, but at another, more damaging level, we need to recognise that in Sheffield and across the country, patients are now being refused non-urgent elective surgery. There are increases in waiting times for knee and hip replacements, and for cataract, hernia and similar operations. Those are not operations for life-threatening problems, but they are hugely important for people’s quality of life. Access to that sort of surgery at the earliest point of need transformed the lives of tens of thousands of people under Labour. Those operations may not be life-critical, but delaying them condemns people to pain and immobility.