NHS Commissioning Board (Mandate)

Henry Smith Excerpts

Tuesday 13th November 2012 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

I hope we can move beyond the debate about public good, private bad and private good, public bad that has dogged the NHS for many years. I believe there is a role for the independent sector and the voluntary sector. Of course, the primary role will be for the traditional NHS. However, when the private and voluntary sectors are used will not be a matter not for politicians or parties; but for local doctors on the ground. I think that in the vast majority of cases, they will want to use and contract with traditional NHS services, but it is important that they have the choice to do what is in the interests of the patients for whom they are responsible.

[Henry Smith (Crawley) (Con)]

For too many years in my Crawley constituency health decisions were made by people who were nowhere near that location. I am delighted that under this Government decisions are being returned to local clinicians and local people. We have seen results already—the local CCG has started a dementia pilot with money from the Department of Health. Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating that kind of vision, both in Crawley and elsewhere?

[Mr Hunt]

I am more than happy to do that, because when it comes to conditions such as dementia there is no one right solution, and doctors’ surgeries and hospitals will have different approaches in different parts of the country. We want everyone to take ownership of the problem. I hope that what is happening in Crawley will be noticed by other parts of the country, so that we can spread best practice everywhere. That is the point—we want to allow innovation to happen in a way that has never happened before.