NHS Trusts: Finances Debate
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Ben Howlett
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NHS Trusts: Finances
Ben Howlett Excerpts(8 years, 3 months ago)
Commons ChamberRead Full debate Read Hansard Text Read Debate Ministerial Extracts
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Ben Gummer
I recognise the problems that the hon. Gentleman has identified at Northern Lincolnshire and Goole Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and in north Lincolnshire. NHS Improvement is looking at them in detail at the moment. I hope that by working with the trust’s existing management, we will see an improvement over the next year. That is the point of what NHS Improvement is trying to do. I reassure the hon. Gentleman that if Jim Mackey produces the kind of results that he produced in his own hospital trust, his constituents will see NHS outcomes of a quality that has so far eluded them.
Ben Howlett (Bath) (Con)
I had the great displeasure of seeing at first hand the catastrophe that was NHS Connecting for Health under the last Labour Administration. It was therefore a bit rich of Labour Front Benchers to table this urgent question. Does my hon. Friend agree that this Government have introduced a strong regulatory regime and that joint investigations by NHS Improvement, the Care Quality Commission and Monitor will prevent future contractual failures?
Ben Gummer
I can give my hon. Friend that reassurance. Every Monday when I meet leading officials in the NHS, the people in the room are from the Care Quality Commission, NHS Improvement and NHS England. We make joint decisions. That is important because the system has to work as one. If the different parts pull in different places, we will not provide the solutions that we need. That is what has happened throughout the history of the NHS. For the first time, we have a system-wide response to the challenges facing the health service.