Oral Answers to Questions

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 15th July 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I thank my hon. Friend for his question. He is right that the chief inspector raised concerns about some issues that persist at Medway. It is important to praise the staff for the progress that they have made in the past year. We have put in place 113 more nurses, the Bernard dementia unit, which has made some really good progress, and a twinning arrangement with University Hospitals Birmingham, which is one of the best in the country. There are some encouraging signs. I wish to reassure him and his constituents that we will stop at nothing to ensure that we turn that hospital around

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

The former chief executive of Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust, Phil Morley, left his post suddenly just before the publication of a very poor Care Quality Commission report, leaving behind a culture of bullying in the trust. Is the Secretary of State as surprised as I am that he has now been appointed chief executive of a hospital in Essex?

[Mr Hunt]

I do not know the details of the individual case, and it would not be right for me to comment. However, what I will say is that we have changed the rules to prevent people who are responsible for poor care from popping up in another part of the system. From now on, when trusts appoint people to boards, they can check their prior records on a central database administered by the CQC. Let me tell the hon. Lady that we are absolutely determined to change the culture in the NHS so that we stamp out the bullying and intimidation that were such a factor for so many doctors and nurses for many years.

NHS Investigations (Jimmy Savile)

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 26th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I hope my hon. Friend will forgive me if I do not try to predict Kate Lampard’s recommendations before she makes them, but I think the obvious question to ask is whether we have the procedures in place that ensure that someone like Savile would not be given the keys to an institution in the way that he was. I do not believe that would happen today. My understanding of the way that NHS organisations work is that it would be impossible for someone to be given the freedom of a trust in the way that he was at Broadmoor, but I do not want to take that as a fact. I want Kate Lampard to look at that, so that we can be absolutely sure that it would not happen. I think the other obvious area for her to consider is the functioning of the disclosure and barring scheme, and to make sure that it really is set up in a way that would make it more likely for us to catch someone like Savile. Again, I think it is likely that he would be caught by the DBS, but I would like Kate Lampard to look at that and give me her views.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I am not sure that I share the Secretary of State’s view about Jimmy Savile being caught by the procedures now in place through the DBS, but I want to ask him this: under changes introduced by this coalition, a regular volunteer at a children’s hospital—acting, for example, as a reading volunteer on the ward—will not require a Criminal Records Bureau check, and given the harm done by the revelations about Jimmy Savile, I am sure that will cause concern to millions of parents around this country, so does the Secretary of State share that concern, especially in the light of the NSPCC’s comments this week that the pendulum has swung too far towards the abuser by the changes that his Government have introduced?

[Mr Hunt]

I do not agree with that. The CRB checks that were introduced by the last Labour Government were a very important step forward when they started in 2002, but what is also important, as I am sure Labour recognises, is that they have limitations, because they identify whether someone has a criminal record. Jimmy Savile was never convicted of a criminal offence, so CRB checks alone would not have stopped this abuse. That is why we need a broader system, which is what the disclosure and barring scheme is intended to be. It is deliberately set up as something that is risk-profiled, so the higher the risk, the higher the standard of investigation, but that is one of the things that Kate Lampard will look at and we need to listen to what she says when she gives us her final report.

Patient Safety

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 24th June 2014 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I would agree with that, and I am grateful to my hon. Friend for talking to me on many occasions about the issues at North Cumbria hospital and for sharing his determination to turn things around— [Interruption.] I find it extraordinary that Labour Members are making all this noise. My hon. Friend will know that that hospital had to give £3.6 million in compensation to just one person because of an appalling mistake when Labour was in power. They should be welcoming these changes, not criticising them.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

On 1 May I asked the care Minister why there had been a 60% drop in the number of people barred from working with vulnerable adults in the health and social care sector, and an even bigger drop of 75% in those barred from working with children. The Minister said that he was going to investigate, but I have heard nothing since. Does the Secretary of State share my concern that fewer unsuitable people are being barred from working in the social and health care sectors on his watch?

[Mr Hunt]

I do not know the answer to that question, so I will look further into the matter and get back to the hon. Lady.

Care Homes

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 1st May 2014 Commons Chamber

[Norman Lamb]

I hope that the changes will be implemented in October, but of course criminal investigations take time. The whole purpose is for the changes to act as a deterrent to stop bad things happening, but I take the view that if there is evidence that awful things have happened, the CQC must use its new powers. If it were to do so, it would send a very clear signal to the rest of the sector that this is a serious regulator that will use its powers effectively.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Because of the high turnover of staff in the adult care sector, intelligence on care staff, especially those who have committed abuse and are barred, is very important. Why has there been a 60% drop in the number of people barred from working with vulnerable adults on the basis of information from care home providers in the last three years?

[Norman Lamb]

I will investigate the figures that the hon. Lady mentions. She is right to suggest that it is important that if employers—both in the social care and health sectors—dismiss a worker for abuse of patients or residents, they refer the case to the barring scheme. If employers are not doing that, they are failing in their responsibilities. We have to protect people in such cases and I will look into the point she raises.

Tobacco Products (Standardised Packaging)

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Thursday 3rd April 2014 Commons Chamber

[Jane Ellison]

I thank my hon. Friend for those comments. She is absolutely right to draw the House’s attention to the fact that the extent to which we can bear down on smoking and stop people taking it up the first place has a major impact on the sustainability of our health services and will, as she says, free up more resources to be spent on other things. It is a very important health priority. She is also right to allude to the impact of, for example, 4,000 children not taking up smoking. Even a modest impact on a major killer is really important.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

If the Minister is able to get the regulations past her own Back Benchers—and I note that the hon. Member for Hornchurch and Upminster (Dame Angela Watkinson) failed to declare an interest, as she registered hospitality from Japan Tobacco International on 12 June 2013—when will we see standardised packaging on the shelves? When will that be, should she get the regulations through in the last Session of this Parliament?

[Jane Ellison]

Once the Government have made a final decision—and in the event that that decision is to proceed and it is approved in this Parliament—there will be a transition period, as there always is with any tobacco regulations. Because we have not yet made a final decision, we have not decided what that period will be, but there would always be a sell-through period—that has been the precedent set in the past. We are not able to be absolutely definite at this point because of that sell-through period, but I am happy to talk to the hon. Lady about previous sell-through periods for similar legislation.

Gay-to-straight Conversion Therapy

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Wednesday 20th November 2013 Westminster Hall

[Sandra Osborne (Ayr, Carrick and Cumnock) (Lab)]

It is a great pleasure, Mr Hood, to serve under your chairmanship. I am raising this debate as part of an ongoing discussion on gay-to-straight conversion therapy, and I refer to my early-day motion, which attracted 52 signatures; the petition presented to the House by my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson); and the private Member’s Bill, the Counsellors and Psychotherapists (Regulation) Bill, which was introduced by my hon. Friend the Member for Swansea West (Geraint Davies).

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I congratulate my hon. Friend on securing this debate. I want to put on record the enormously helpful work of Tom Stevens and Colin Levitt, who live in Hull and were behind the petition that was presented to Parliament because they felt strongly about the matter and decided something had to be done.

[Sandra Osborne]

I, too, have reason to be grateful to those people.

I want to place on the record the fact that several hon. Members indicated that they wanted to attend this debate but had other commitments.

Mid Staffordshire NHS Foundation Trust

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Our intention is that the maximum period when a hospital is put into special measures should never be longer than a year. After that, if it is not making significant progress, there is the possibility of it being put into administration. The reason for that, precisely as my hon. Friend said, is that we cannot let poor standards and poor care persist over a long period. I am pleased about the progress made at Medway Maritime in recent months; Frimley Park, which is my local hospital, delivers truly outstanding care. He is absolutely right to say that it should never have taken so long to get to the heart of the problem.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

The Secretary of State said that it is impossible to deliver safe care without a safe staffing level, which of course depends on resources. Under the coalition’s new funding formula, Hull NHS is due to lose £28 million, and it will not get any money for the A and E winter pressures that are bound to happen. How does he think that that will help safe staffing levels in Hull?

[Mr Hunt]

The funding formula is decided independently, and no final decision has been made. The decision will be made by NHS England, which I know is looking at that at the moment. It has to decide equitably across the whole country, based on need, population, social deprivation and other factors. Like the hon. Lady, I am waiting to see what it decides.

Hepatitis C (Haemophiliacs)

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 29th October 2013 Westminster Hall

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship today, Mr Dobbin. I congratulate my right hon. Friend the Member for Wythenshawe and Sale East (Paul Goggins) on securing the debate on this very important issue. As he said, he has campaigned for 16 years to bring justice to this community. He set out clearly the key points about the history of what has happened and the issues that are still outstanding.

As the co-chair of the all-party group on haemophilia and contaminated blood, I am delighted to see so many right hon. and hon. Members in Westminster Hall. I particularly welcome the Minister to her role. I am sure that, like her two predecessors as Minister with responsibility for public health, she will develop a keen interest in the issue and get to grips with the points that the community still want addressed.

Although health is a devolved matter, I hope that the Government will look at what is happening north of the border and the recommendations of the Penrose inquiry that are expected in the spring of 2014 and carefully consider the Scottish Government’s response to those recommendations and the lessons that we can learn in the rest of the United Kingdom.

I want to talk about four key issues that my constituent Glenn Wilkinson, the chair of the Contaminated Blood Campaign, has asked me to raise in this debate and that relate to the financial support given to this community. I want to pay tribute to his passionate commitment to seeing that justice is done. I agree with other hon. Members about the need for a much broader and deeper review of what has happened, including a public inquiry into the whole disaster.

The first of the main issues about financial support is the Caxton Foundation application process. There is general dissatisfaction with that organisation, which has been given responsibility for grants to people with hepatitis C who have received stage 1 payments from the Skipton Fund. The Caxton Foundation has given a number of assurances that the application process will become less complex, less stressful and quicker, but when we talk to the community, it says that the grant application is not improving and that, in some cases, it is becoming worse. I fully understand why many people feel that a grant-based body is not what this community deserves, but until we have a different approach, we must make the system work better for those for whom it was set up.

I have some suggestions for the Minister to consider. First, we need a clear list of what grants will be given for published on the website. The lack of clear criteria means that people feel that they are often begging. Secondly, we need a simpler application process. At present, people tell me that they believe they have applied for something only later to find that they have to fill in further forms. That feels like moving the goalposts mid-way through an application process, and it is not fair.

Thirdly, I want to see a clear statement on means-testing. At present, it is my understanding that the Caxton Foundation is not having to means-test most applications, and some payments, such as the winter fuel payment, are paid to everyone. Why is the foundation asking applicants to complete intrusive census forms, which ask for incredibly detailed information about the circumstances of an individual or a family?

Fourthly, we need decisions about applications to be reached in a timely fashion, and a clear target should be set. Possible further measures could improve the efficiency and functioning of all the funds. Will the Minister consider the staffing levels in the schemes, because there is a restriction in place? There is also a need to look again at the availability of financial resources. The Department could introduce some support in kind. It could offer to second a public health doctor to the funds, to complete an assessment of beneficiaries’ needs. That has never been done, and it would be helpful. The Department might also bring to bear its experience of procuring computer and telephone systems. The previous Minister with responsibility for public health, the hon. Member for Broxtowe (Anna Soubry), agreed to review the grant-based system because she recognised that it was demeaning. Will the Minister comment on the progress of such a review?

Hon. Members have already mentioned the unfairness of the two-stage process. I wrote to the previous Minister, asking her to set out the evidence for separating people into the two stages. In particular, I wanted to understand

“whether the rationale for awarding payments to Stage 2 sufferers is based on a desire to support these with the increased costs incurred because of the disease or to compensate them for the increased risk of dying.”

In her letter back to me, she argued that the decision was based on an

“expert review of the evidence”

and that

“the decision was made not to introduce recurrent payments for all as there is a wide spectrum of illness associated with chronic hepatitis C infection.”

Let me put to the Minister three reasons why that argument does not hold up. First, the distinction is not a clear one; there is no blood test. It is a matter of progression, which is not easily determined. That issue is exaggerated by the fact that it requires a liver biopsy to ascertain the level of liver damage, and that, in itself, is potentially life threatening.

Secondly, there is increased evidence that hepatitis C is more than a liver disease. Other Members have already said that a range of symptoms have been identified including fatigue, joint problems and mental health issues. Thirdly, the fact that mortality rates are higher among stage 1 sufferers than stage 2 sufferers seems to be a compelling argument why such an artificial distinction should not hold.

The Contaminated Blood Campaign has committed many hours of research to get to the bottom of the expert evidence. When Professor Brian Gazzard, who is chair of the expert panel, was asked about the matter, he said that they had never discussed the two-stage system; in fact, the experts were expressly asked by the Department of Health not to discuss it. Charles Gore, the chief executive of the Hepatitis C Trust, who was also one of the experts used by the Department of Health, has stated that the two-stage approach is an arbitrary system and that he knows of people who suffer more in stage 1 than others do in stage 2. Will the Minister set out—if she cannot do it now, perhaps she could write to me—what the expert evidence is, so that we are clear about how the decision was reached?

I have two other matters to discuss briefly. On the number of people who are affected, my right hon. Friend the Member for Coatbridge, Chryston and Bellshill (Mr Clarke) asked a parliamentary question about the number of Skipton stage 1 beneficiaries, which is unknown. Will the Department of Health take the necessary steps to identify how many state 1 sufferers are still living? That could be done through contact information that is still held by the Skipton Fund and/or through information now held on census forms by the Caxton Foundation.

On hepatitis C and HIV, I absolutely agree with what the hon. Member for North East Bedfordshire (Alistair Burt) said about how we set different parts of the community against one another. The list of anomalies between those infected with hepatitis C and those with HIV and their family members continues to grow. The imbalance of the system now operated by the schemes is such that some family members will get assistances and others will not. That area needs to be considered, especially because HIV and its treatment have changed considerably over the past 20 years. That needs to be recognised.

Finally, I would be delighted if the Minister accepted an invitation to come to a meeting of the APPG on haemophilia and contaminated blood.

In-patient Mental Health Services (Children and Adolescents)

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Wednesday 23rd October 2013 Commons Chamber

[Alan Johnson]

The hon. Gentleman makes an important point. He is talking about the closure of adult in-patient services, which had to move from Goole to Hull. The irony is that in-patient mental health facilities for adults exist in Hull. Providing care close to home is important for adults, but surely it is even more important for six, seven and eight-year-old children. The further away they are from their parents, the more their mental health situation is likely to deteriorate.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

I congratulate my right hon. Friend on securing this important debate. I want to raise the case of a constituent of mine whose daughter is having treatment on the other side of Manchester, 115 miles away from their home in Hull. He has not been able to see his daughter for three weeks because of the financial implications of having to travel so far. He is distraught about not being able to give the emotional support that his daughter needs at this time. Does my right hon. Friend share my concern that that is totally unacceptable when we are dealing with the mental health issues of young people?

[Alan Johnson]

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. She has been fighting a battle about the West End unit. It started with one constituent, but we now know that up to 13 have been affected in that way, one of whom she has mentioned.

In medical care we often talk of the need to concentrate operations in fewer locations in order to maximise expertise, but that is not a relevant argument for child and adolescent mental health. In the case of my constituent’s 13-year-old daughter, for instance, the specialist consultant had to travel from Hull to Cheadle to see his patient. It cost the NHS £1,000 a day to provide that appalling service, but that is without the cost of the consultant having to travel to see his patient.

One case of this nature in Hull would be bad enough, but there have been 13 such cases, and probably more, since we lost in-patient services. Youngsters from Hull and the East Riding have been sent to Manchester, as my hon. Friend the Member for Kingston upon Hull North (Diana Johnson) mentioned, and Northampton as well as to Leeds and Cheadle. That is worsening the condition of the children concerned.

Trying to address the problem in the newly reorganised NHS bequeathed to us by the right hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr Lansley) is a nightmare. NHS England is responsible for in-patient care, clinical commissioning groups are responsible for out-patient services, local authorities are responsible for public health and the Humber NHS Foundation Trust, the provider, says that it is absolutely powerless in the matter. I have been told by the director of commissioning that, if a proper in-patient service were offered to the mental health trust in Hull and the East Riding, it would have to decline the commission because the tariff is so low. I wonder whether the Minister can comment on that.

The service is removed by NHS England without consultation because it is available for only five nights a week. The CCG then tries retrospectively to justify the closure, saying that it is underused, and we will hear more about that from the Minister—I tell him that there is gaming going on to try retrospectively to justify something that it cannot justify on an intellectual basis. The mental health trust says that it cannot operate it anyway because the tariff is too low.

The public in Hull want the in-patient facility restored. A local business man has even offered the use of Elloughton castle in east Yorkshire as a location for in-patient care, but he can find nobody in the NHS prepared to talk to him—I know how he feels. Only the Department of Health can sort of this mess by ordering the re-provision of in-patient units, including at West End.

The Minister should also reinstate the child and adolescent national psychiatric morbidity survey to begin to address the lack of meaningful data since its cessation. I am pleased that the adult version has been restored, but the child and adolescent version has not. Above all, he needs to address the problem of diminishing funding for mental health.

I hope that the Minister will meet me and my constituent whose daughter has received such appalling treatment in order to begin a proper dialogue about the closures with those who have been genuinely affected. Only then can we begin to say that we are addressing the institutional bias against mental health in this country, which he and I both know exists and both want to eradicate.

Accident and Emergency Departments

Diana Johnson Excerpts

Tuesday 10th September 2013 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I would be delighted to go to Princess Alexandra hospital, where I am sure the work is indeed excellent. I agree with my hon. Friend’s fundamental point, which is that this Government took the very difficult decision not just to protect the NHS budget, but to increase it. That was described as irresponsible by the right hon. Member for Leigh (Andy Burnham). We are spending £600 million more in real terms this year than we would have spent if we had followed his advice. That makes a very big difference to hospitals such as that in my hon. Friend’s constituency.

[Diana Johnson (Kingston upon Hull North) (Lab)]

Will the Secretary of State be clear: did the risk register warn the Government that their reorganisation would hit the A and E performance targets?

[Mr Hunt]

There has been exhaustive analysis of the problems in A and E departments and whenever I have visited such departments I have not heard a single person say that the reorganisation was the cause of them. What they talk about is the underlying problems, which we are addressing today.