Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Dan Poulter and Annette Brooke(9 years, 6 months ago)
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Dr Poulter
The hon. Lady raises an important issue, which is that the NHS Litigation Authority often picks up on things when they do not go well and when the communication between patients and trusts has broken down. That is one of the things that need to be put right. I will look into the matter and write to her, because it is important that when things go wrong patients are supported in the right way and the lessons are learned.
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)
T9. Currently, there are no psychiatric intensive care unit beds for women in Dorset. One of my constituents was recently sent to a unit in Bradford. Will additional funding be available to address this appalling situation?
Oral Answers to Questions
Debate between Dan Poulter and Annette Brooke(11 years, 3 months ago)
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Dr Poulter
My hon. Friend makes an excellent point. Community hospitals can provide a good focus for palliative care, respite care, intermediate care and step-up and step-down care close to home, particularly for people in rural communities who may otherwise have to travel very long distances to attend hospitals. I hope the community hospitals in my hon. Friend’s constituency will have a long and vibrant future.
Annette Brooke (Mid Dorset and North Poole) (LD)
T1. If he will make a statement on his departmental responsibilities.
Nursery Milk Scheme
Debate between Dan Poulter and Annette Brooke(11 years, 6 months ago)
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Dr Poulter
My hon. Friend is absolutely right, and that is why the Government launched the consultation in the first place. The scheme was devised in the second world war, and its provisions mean that the Department of Health currently has no role in active procurement. The Government embarked on the consultation in view of the rising costs, and my hon. Friend will rightly feel concern for dairy farmers in her area of Somerset. Profits from this scheme are going to intermediate companies, and the cost has recently escalated out of control. My hon. Friend also highlights the fact that farm-gate prices have not improved as a result of those increased prices and profits for intermediate suppliers of milk.
It is worth pointing out that an important factor contributing significantly to the scheme’s accelerating costs seems be embedded in its design. No mechanism exists to incentivise child-care providers to economise and search for the highest attainable value for money in their local markets, to support their local farmers or to source their milk from a certain provider. Over the last three years, the average price paid for a pint of milk in a supermarket has been 50p, but the average charged by agents is 78p, which is well over 50% higher. That shows that the scheme is rapidly becoming unfit for purpose, which is exactly why the Department embarked on the consultation.
Annette Brooke
Until recently, at least one school was not registered in the scheme because it feared the bureaucracy would be too great. A balance must therefore be struck to ensure that schools and child-care providers participate in the scheme.
Dr Poulter
My hon. Friend makes a good point. As part of our consultation, we are looking at a number of options as to how we can maintain an effective scheme and ensure that the one we offer and deliver is better value for money.
It is worth looking at the three options in the consultation. The first option was to cap the price that can be claimed for milk. Under that option, an upper limit on the price that could be claimed for milk would be introduced and increased each year in line with inflation in the retail price of milk. In special circumstances, arrangements would be put in place to vary the cap for child-care providers that, perhaps because of geographical isolation and rurality, to which hon. Members have alluded, do not have access to milk priced at the normal market rate.
The second option was to issue e-voucher cards with or without devolved incentives for child-care providers to buy milk economically. Under that option, child-care providers would no longer have to pay for milk and then claim reimbursement from the nursery milk reimbursement unit. On joining the scheme, child-care providers would indicate how many children would normally be attending for two hours or more per day. They would then be credited with a prospective monthly payment equal to the number of pints required, multiplied by a fixed reimbursement rate, which would be set at an average market price per pint.
The final and third option was to contract a company or consortium of companies for the direct supply and delivery of milk to all child-care providers. Under that option, the Department of Health would take a much more active role in procurement. It would contract a company, or a consortium of companies, for the direct supply of milk to all child-care providers registered with the scheme at an agreed price per pint supplied. That is one way to avoid the bureaucratic burden to which my hon. Friend has referred.