"Does my right hon. Friend agree that we tackle health inequalities, and improve health outcomes and access to accident and emergency departments, by facing up to the need to make difficult decisions to change the way care is delivered to keep it up to date? Does he further agree that …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"While I welcome the fact that the provider sector as a whole is in surplus, will my hon. Friend confirm that some trusts are indeed anticipating that they will be running deficits? Will he also confirm that the National Audit Office has estimated that up to 30% of acute hospital …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"May I welcome the £250 million that my right hon. Friend has announced as short-term relief of the pressures in A and E departments this winter, and in particular the £10 million he has announced for Leicester’s hospitals trust? Does he agree that the way to relieve pressure in A …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"Does my hon. Friend agree that there is no solution to the economic challenges facing the health and care system—still less any solution to the quality challenges that are increasingly coming to light—that does not involve proper integration of health and care? Is not the decision announced by the Chancellor …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"Those who want to make the case for change in an organisation—and, after the Francis review, who can doubt the need for change in parts of the national health service—must first demonstrate the need for change. Does this review not build on the distinguished record of both Bruce Keogh and …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"It is one of the more endearing characteristics of the House of Commons that although the motion before us and those that follow it involve £517 billion of public expenditure, it falls to a Back Bencher to make the case on behalf of the absent Financial Secretary. It is obviously …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"I will come on to the impact on pay later. My hon. Friend is right that the challenge antedates the election of this Government and that it increasingly looks beyond this Parliament, as did last week’s public expenditure announcements. There are specific challenges implicit in the Nicholson challenge for the …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"Will my hon. Friend forgive me if I complete the challenge so as to be even-handed, as the Chair of a cross-party Committee should be?
Some Labour Members may wish to look for ways to avoid the difficult questions posed by the Nicholson challenge, but we need to remember that …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"I do not wish to detain the House for the whole of the time available for this debate, but my hon. Friend raises an important question about how that demand is made up. The interesting thing about the drivers of demand—rising expectations, the cost and availability of modern medicine and …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech
"I am sure that my hon. Friend will forgive me if, faced with an estimate of £103 billion, I do not go through every £70,000 of expenditure. However, he has made his point.
This is where I believe the Committee has held the Government to account, although not always comfortably …..." Stephen Dorrell - View Speech