Oral Answers to Questions

Anne Marie Morris Excerpts

Tuesday 5th January 2016 Commons Chamber

[George Freeman]

That is an important point. It is up to each hospital to implement digitalisation in its own way, but we are putting in place a series of steps to make sure that all parts of the NHS are supported and encouraged in the drive for delivery of a paperless NHS by 2020. In the new year, we are requiring the clinical commissioning group digital index, which will measure the digitalisation of all health economies, and we are launching a review of best practice. We are absolutely committed to driving digitalisation so that the 21st-century NHS is not running on paper and cardboard.

[Anne Marie Morris (Newton Abbot) (Con)]

10. What plans he has to publish a rural healthcare strategy.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Ben Gummer)]

The “Five Year Forward View” published by NHS England sets out the healthcare strategy for the whole of England, including rural areas. Rural areas have their own health needs, which should be taken into account in planning and developing healthcare systems.

[Anne Marie Morris]

What specific research has the Minister undertaken in order to understand, and what steps has he taken to address, the very different needs and costs of rural communities in the south-west, which has disproportionately high numbers of over 85-year-olds and population distributions that make inflexible multi-speciality community providers and primary and acute care configurations unattainable?

[Ben Gummer]

The “Five Year Forward View”, written by Simon Stevens, takes particular account of rural areas, but of course not all rural areas are the same. It is down to clinical commissioning groups to judge the needs of their local areas and make sure that they are reflecting the specific circumstances in which they find themselves.