Oral Answers to Questions Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Oral Answers to Questions

Mark Reckless Excerpts
Wednesday 26th November 2014

(9 years, 5 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Mark Reckless Portrait Mark Reckless (Rochester and Strood) (UKIP)
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I am grateful to the Prime Minister—[Interruption.]

John Bercow Portrait Mr Speaker
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Order. A Parliament, if it believes in anything, believes in free speech. I do not need the heckling: it is tedious and low grade. The hon. Gentleman will be heard, however long it takes—it is as simple as that.

Mark Reckless Portrait Mark Reckless
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I am grateful to the Prime Minister for spending so much time in Rochester and Strood. Dr Phillip Barnes, the acting chief executive of Medway Maritime hospital, said this morning that what our hospital needs is a period of patience and stability. Does the Prime Minister agree?

Lord Cameron of Chipping Norton Portrait The Prime Minister
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I agree that the hospital needs those things, but it also needs the attention that will be brought about by the special measures that Medway is in. We have seen extra A and E consultants and nurses going in. There are 112 additional nurses and 61 more doctors, but it will take time to turn around a hospital that had very high rates of mortality and that still has challenges. The only thing that I fail to understand is why the hon. Gentleman decided to join a party that does not believe in the NHS and that wants to break it up.