Junior Doctors’ Contract Negotiations
Debate between Robert Jenrick and Ben Gummer(8 years, 2 months ago)
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Ben Gummer
Sir David Dalton has also made it clear that we have to reform all contracts. One can place the balance where one wishes, but it is important that we reform the juniors’ and the consultants’ contracts together, so that they can fit within the service of a piece. It is wrong, for instance, to have a junior on duty taking decisions at the weekend and not be covered by consultants supervising and helping with those decisions. We need to ensure that there is consistency of rostering through the week and at the weekend involving both juniors and seniors.
Robert Jenrick (Newark) (Con)
I represent many junior doctors. I have met them and I have tried to represent their views to the Government, but I have always taken the view that my primary responsibility is to the patients of the NHS. One of those patients, a constituent of mine, emailed me this week to say that a consequence of the strike would be the
“cancellation of my wife’s biopsy, planned for this week, without which her already shortened life will be shorter”.
Will the Minister, the shadow Minister and the whole House join me in condemning this strike? It will achieve nothing. It is a distraction from the negotiations, which need to continue, and it will put the lives of my constituent and others across the country at risk.
Ben Gummer
I cannot possibly add to the comment made by my hon. Friend, and I just hope the shadow Secretary of State takes note.
NHS: Financial Performance
Debate between Robert Jenrick and Ben Gummer(8 years, 6 months ago)
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Urgent Questions are proposed each morning by backbench MPs, and up to two may be selected each day by the Speaker. Chosen Urgent Questions are announced 30 minutes before Parliament sits each day.
Each Urgent Question requires a Government Minister to give a response on the debate topic.
This information is provided by Parallel Parliament and does not comprise part of the offical record
Ben Gummer
I answered that point entirely accurately and categorically, and on behalf of the ministerial team I refute the allegation.
Robert Jenrick (Newark) (Con)
My local trust in Nottinghamshire, Sherwood Forest, is in a very bad financial position—one of the worst in the country. The primary reason is the appalling private finance initiative deal we inherited from the previous Labour Government, which consumes 17% of the trust’s annual budget. Would a new Parliament be an opportunity for the Government to look again at those appalling PFI contracts, particularly those that affect trusts such as mine that are in special measures?
Ben Gummer
Across the country, trusts are struggling under the load of poorly negotiated PFI contracts. It is worth remembering that when the Labour party speaks about all the money it put into the NHS, a large part of it was borrowed via PFI—that part which was not borrowed as part of Government debt. The important point about PFI is to try to address each contract in turn. The Department is looking at this on an ongoing basis, not only as it concerns old contracts but in the letting of new ones.