argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Points of Order — House of Commons, 2020-07-14
Topic: Health
Richard James Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party, Right): Further to that point of order, Mr Deputy Speaker. I think this is important, as we look towards the autumn and winter times, when flus become more common. As one of those who gets a flu jab every year as a diabetic, I am very aware of the demands that there may be on the health service, and we are going into recess. Is it the intention of the Health Secretary and his Department to come to this House and make a statement on the preparations that will be in place so that when it comes to the autumn and the winter we are in a position to respond quickly and effectively?
Private Members’ Bills — House of Commons, 2015-01-22
Topic: Health
Questions: If he will review the effectiveness of the procedure for tabling money resolutions for private Members’ Bills; and if he will make a statement.; If he will review the effectiveness of the procedure for tabling money resolutions for private Members’ Bills; and if he will make a statement.
Kerry Gillian McCarthy (Labour, Centre-left): It is six months since the House voted to back the excellent Bill promoted by my hon. Friend the Member for Eltham (Clive Efford) which would reverse the worst aspects NHS privatisation, yet the Government have failed to bring forward the necessary motion for it to proceed to Committee. Will the Leader of the House listen to the will of the House and the British public, and ensure that it is respected by acting so that the Bill can now proceed to Committee?
Defence Spending — House of Commons, 2015-03-12
Topic: Defense
Philip Martin Dunne (Conservative, Centre-right): No, the hon. Gentleman has had his chance. The defence budget is in balance and our plans are affordable. We are on track to deliver £5 billion of efficiency savings in the next Parliament, including £1 billion from the equipment support plan alone. Incidentally, the half-baked plans in the Labour review "A New Deal for UK Defence" would deliver only some 1% of what we are already saving in the Department. The proof of our transformation was set out in the National Audit Office major projects report for 2014, which showed a reduction in cost of £397 million across our 11 largest projects. That was the Ministry of Defence’s best performance on cost since 2005 and best performance on delivering projects on time since 2001.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-03-16
Topic: Health
Edmund Crisp (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, first, I thank those noble Lords who added their names to this amendment and spoke so eloquently in this debate, which covered a range of important issues that between them present a compelling argument for what is only a consultation. Secondly, I thank the other noble Lords who spoke during the debate, including those who spoke against the amendment, because having a proper debate allows us to pull out some important issues. I will return to that in a moment. Thirdly, I thank the Minister for the time that he and his colleagues gave to meet with us, and for our helpful discussions. I very much accept the noble Earl’s statement about us being on the same side and pushing in the same direction, but we need to get there That takes me to picking up some of the points that were made. I thought the contribution from the noble Lord, Lord Naseby, was very helpful. The point he made about how the numbers are coming down was terrific. It is great news—so let us accelerate it. We can get behind that and really shift it. There is a problem here, as with so much in public health, in that people talk about aggregates and averages. There is a real trap in aggregates and averages. The aggregate could come down to 5%, but 20% of people in the lowest socio- economic group could still be smoking. That is the problem when you deal in gross numbers. I said in the debate that, according to Cancer Research UK, which is a reasonably reputable body, it would be 2047 before we saw that level of achievement among the lowest socioeconomic group in the country. Aggregates and averages are real traps in public health I understand the good faith of the Ministers in this House. However, and I think I speak for my colleagues on this amendment, we note that the Green Paper in 2019 promised to consider the idea of polluter or perpetrator pays—whatever is the right language for that. Almost three years on, we have not yet seen that happen. Not surprisingly, we are rightly suspicious of how these things can be kicked into the long grass and continue for a long time. If we are to achieve the 2030 outcomes for all the people for whom we want to achieve them, we need to accelerate. I believe the proposals put forward here are practical and implementable, as the noble Lord, Lord Young, spelled out In our discussions with Ministers, we offered a number of concessions, including the idea that it did not have to be precisely this scheme that was implemented, as they could consult on others. I am sorry the Government have been unable to accept that. On the basis of everything that has been said today, I would like to test the opinion of the House.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-03-16
Topic: Health
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I am very grateful to everyone who has spoken and I note the tone with which "in due course" was uttered, which is really disappointing. Some very important points have been made, particularly about people really having the choice to know what they are taking into their bodies in the name of alcoholic drinks. May I assure the noble Lord, Lord Winston, that I really do not believe that fine wines will be sacrificed on the altar of public health? Very few people drink fine wines; most people drink drinks bottled and labelled in this country—the obesogenic effect is really important However, I am a realist and I am aware that the chance of this being thrown out when it goes to the other place means that it would not remain in the Bill. I hope the Government will take the message back to the Secretary of State to empower him to grasp the nettle, provide leadership in public health and, for the first time, proceed to make sure that people know what they are drinking and what the harms are—they might prefer to go out with their family and eat a large burger than have two glasses of wine. Given that, and the reality of the situation we are in, we will hold the Government’s feet to the fire over what "in due course" means; I hope it is a very short course. On that, I beg leave to withdraw the amendment.
Ambulance Pressures — House of Commons, 2022-07-18
Topic: Health
Helen Margaret Lilian Morgan (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): I also attended the meeting on Friday morning about Shropshire’s health crisis, and I echo the comments of the right hon. Member for Ludlow (Philip Dunne) on that. Quite apart from this week’s heatwave, there is increased demand on Shropshire’s ambulance service, and the local team are clearly working hard to find solutions, but I did not feel reassured that they had any quick fixes for this crisis. One of their big problems is with recruiting social care workers; the team say that they have never seen a market like it. What is the Secretary of State doing to address the critical workforce problem in social care, not only in rural areas but across the country?
Ockenden Report — House of Lords, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Ilora Gillian Finlay (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I also thank the Minister for the very sensitive way in which he has dealt with this Statement and, like others, commend those parents who have fought for years to be heard. I also commend Donna Ockenden for an outstanding report that makes really harrowing reading To follow up on the question asked by the noble Baroness, Lady Bottomley, about training, it has struck me for many years that the competition between midwives and obstetricians is extremely damaging. It was there when I was a medical student and it has not changed. The bullying culture on the wards has I think been almost endemic and right across the system. I hope that the colleges will look at training jointly from day one, not just after qualification, because that team building needs to happen very early. The way the midwifery tutors and the obstetric tutors deal with their trainees must be integrated from day one and then follow on into continuous professional learning. So my first request is that that message goes back very clearly to the schools of midwifery and to the obstetric training courses My second point relates to the CQC, which has done a great deal to raise the quality of care across the NHS and is often to be admired. However, it is worrying that it took so long for it to realise that there was a problem. That would suggest that, internally, its benchmarking of what was normal was at a level that is actually unacceptable. I hope the Minister will be able to go back to the CQC and that the CQC itself will be supported to radically rethink the way that it looks at maternity services. I hope that it will be prepared to have some extremely difficult inspections, consultations and conversations with staff in some units that were previously thought to be doing well, but where it might discover that there is bullying and, particularly, this closed-ranks culture that was so evident in the way people responded to the report. But, overall, I think we are all grateful for the openness of this report and the openness with which the Minister has brought it to our notice.
Ockenden Report — House of Lords, 2022-03-30
Topic: Health
Mary Watkins (Crossbench, Unknown): My Lords, I also thank the Minister for the sensitive way in which he has addressed this very difficult statement I was particularly moved by the fact that there are empty bedrooms. I have a daughter who is 31. I took a long time to get pregnant and, at the very end of my pregnancy, I woke up and said that I was ill. I went to hospital and my husband said to me, "I don’t think you’re ill, I just think you’ve never had a baby before". But as the day went on, he came to see me, and apparently I said to him, "If anything happens to me, you will look after our child, won’t you?" He said it frightened him because I am not given to drama. He went to the midwife in charge of the ward and said, "I’m really worried about my wife". It was taken seriously. I had a scan, and—the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, will know that this is very rare—I had a rare form of pre-eclampsia in my liver, called HELLP syndrome. In 10 minutes, I had a caesarean section. I was ill for several months and my daughter was in ITU. She has a bedroom at home—she does not live in it except when she comes back—and it has really made me think, not just about the women who lost families but about how much we train healthcare professionals to listen to the significant other of the person. We have not said a lot about that today. That significant other may be a husband, it may be a man, it may be a same- sex partner, but I urge that training includes listening to the significant other I also want to raise that strengthening clinical reporting at board level is essential. I and others did research after the Francis report, where it was very clear that boards were not spending significant time looking at clinical issues but were looking at financial issues. That changed then, but I believe the Ockenden report reminds us that there should be further NHS guidance to boards about their responsibility for examining mortality and morbidity rates in order that that is kept closely under supervision at board level. Believe you me, as an ex-deputy chair of a trust, I know that that was one of the most important things I looked at. I chaired the clinical audit committee and I know that those are the things that can pick up recurring issues early and enable boards to look at what is actually going on in the system. We do not want to have another Ockenden report that may not be about midwifery but about something else My final issue is to re-emphasise that we must get workforce planning right for the whole of the NHS, not just midwifery—though I welcome everything the Minister has said in relation to midwives and obstetricians.
Coronavirus — House of Commons, 2020-03-11
Topic: Health
Richard James Shannon (Democratic Unionist Party, Right): I thank the Minister for his dedication and for the vital role he has played in this House. History has taught us many lessons. In the pandemic of 1919, secondary schools stayed open, as did churches—it was normal life, with precautions in place for all. Is that the message the Health Minister is sending out to people tonight?
Topical Questions — House of Commons, 2015-06-08
Topic: Defense
Questions: What help is being given by our forces to aid reconstruction in Nepal? May I commend members of the Gurkha regiment and the Gurkha welfare scheme for overseeing the excellent water project that I and other members of the International Development Committee saw this spring? Will Ministers liaise with their counterparts to discuss supporting additional, desperately needed projects?; Will the Defence Secretary clarify something he said earlier about the number of boots currently on the ground in Iraq? He said 250 troops were currently deployed, whereas The Guardian reports that the deployment of an additional 125 troops will take the number of“UK military personnel involved in Iraq-related missions to 900.”The Daily Telegraph and The Independent mention similar figures. Will he clarify why those press reports are different from what he told the House earlier?; Further to the question from my right hon. Friend the Member for Broadland (Mr Simpson), my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State will know that post-conflict reconstruction and renewal costs borne by his Department do not currently count towards the 2% of GDP spending. Does he have any plans to lobby the OECD and/or NATO on this, and what is the Government’s position?; Does the Secretary of State agree that some of the most severe threats we face emanate from cyberspace, and that the strategic defence and security review should include our cyber-security capability to ensure that we have both offensive and defensive cyber capability?
Angela Christine Smith (Labour, Centre-left): We all know that the French navy is being used to plug gaps in military operations in the Gulf, and that in that context the US military has taken to describing our country as "Great shrinking Britain". Surely the Secretary of State is concerned about that view of this country. What is he going to do about it?
Overseas Operations (Service Personnel and Veterans) Bill — House of Commons, 2021-04-21
Topic: Defense
Jamie Hume Stone (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): Lord Mackay is a very old gentleman, and I am a historian—of adequate standard only. Surely, the conduct of the British troops in the second world war—the trusted Tommies—gave us the moral authority that we used at the Nuremberg war trials, something that Lord Mackay will remember himself.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-26
Topic: Health
Joan Walmsley (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I am in favour of surgical excision. I oppose the powers of the Secretary of State in Clause 40 and Schedule 6 to intervene in decisions on reconfiguration of health services. Far be it from me to want to protect Conservative Secretaries of State for Health from themselves, but I warn that if they use these powers they will eventually get the blame The noble Lord, Lord Stevens, gave a number of very good reasons why this clause should be deleted from the Bill. My reason is somewhat different. I think these powers are very dangerous. We have recently seen how the Government’s powers to provide or withdraw funding from a proposal, let us say, to build a new school or improve infrastructure in a particular constituency have got them into trouble. We have heard allegations made against Government Whips by Members of Parliament of actions which could be criminal offences of bribery. It is alleged that, in seeking to ensure support for their leader, they are threatening Members of Parliament that funding for their projects, which have already been declared to be in the public interest of their constituents, will be withdrawn unless they behave in a certain way, so political considerations would trump public interests Like the former Member of Parliament to whom the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, referred, all politicians know that the provision of a new hospital or clinic or, on the contrary, the closing of a healthcare setting are very sensitive considerations in elections. All parties ensure that the voters know their views on these matters at election time and in between elections. The Prime Minister knows this. Why else would he put such emphasis on his promise of 40 so-called new hospitals by 2030 if this were not the case? It makes a good headline, even if we know that some of them are not new and some of them are not hospitals The powers of reconfiguration sought by the Secretary of State in Clause 40 would give the Government the ability to change the decisions of those put in place locally and well qualified to make them in a non-partisan and needs-based way, thus allowing the Government to wield unwarranted political power. It is probable that this Government would not be able to resist doing so, for the wrong reasons, and it is incumbent on all parties to stop them by deleting Clause 40 from the Bill. Indeed, I do not think that I would be in favour of giving these powers to any Government of any political party; they are just too liable to be misused.
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-26
Topic: Health
Sarah Virginia Brinton (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, the amendments in this group, so ably introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, aim to restrict the powers of the Secretary of State to limit the capital spending of NHS foundation trusts and to ask for the reinstatement of the 2019 agreement. It is important to note that these amendments do not remove the powers as a whole but tighten them to avoid changes by the Secretary of State to funding that would delay capital works which are needed and urgent on health and safety grounds.
Covid-19 Response: Defence Support — House of Commons, 2021-01-12
Topic: Defense
Jamie Hume Stone (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): May I, too, express my sincere thanks to our United Kingdom armed forces for all that they have done? My vast and faraway constituency presents special challenges: the remoteness of where people live; an ageing population, which is statistically rather different from that of the rest of the UK; and the distance people might have to travel from far corners of my constituency to Inverness or Wick to be vaccinated. I hope that the quick reaction teams he refers to will be involved in helping my constituents to be vaccinated. Will he remind the Scottish Government that they are there to help and that, working together, we can give my constituents the security they need?
Barts Health NHS Trust — House of Commons, 2015-03-19
Topic: Health
Jeremy John Elton Lefroy (Conservative, Centre-right): This is a very serious matter, and it is extremely important that it should be brought to the House. I am pleased that the Francis report on Mid Staffordshire resulted in the appointment of a chief inspector of hospitals, which has led to the production of reports such as this, but does the Minister agree that this case highlights the vital importance of having proper safety systems within each health and social care provider, as is proposed in the Health and Social Care (Safety and Quality) Bill, which is now going through the House of Lords with the support of the Opposition and the Government? Will she ask the CQC to ensure that each hospital and social and health care provider that it inspects has such safety systems in place and that that includes management systems, to ensure that the providers cannot make cuts that would put patient safety at risk?
Covid-19 — House of Lords, 2022-01-20
Topic: Health
Sarah Virginia Brinton (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, the Leader of the House just said that there is no advice for people who were formerly shielding, the clinically extremely vulnerable, but there is; the noble Lord, Lord Kamall, confirmed this to me last night. It says that this group should still consider meeting people only 14 days after they have been fully vaccinated, social distancing, asking friends and family to have rapid lateral flow antigen tests, asking any visitors to their homes to wear face coverings and not going into enclosed crowded spaces. Putting this guidance on a website is not the same as telling this group of people, or the wider public, especially their employers, directly that this group still need to take care. Will the Leader take this back and ensure that communications go to this vulnerable group of just under 4 million people?
Health and Care Bill — House of Lords, 2022-01-20
Topic: Health
Christopher Rennard (Liberal Democrats, Centre to centre-left): My Lords, I draw the Committee’s attention to my registered interests in healthcare equipment. I have added my name to Amendment 50, moved by the noble Lord, Lord Black of Brentwood. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, demonstrated clearly, as have others, that it simply cannot be said that the amendment is unnecessary The recent report on fracture liaison services from the APPG on Osteoporosis and Bone Health makes important reading. It shows clearly that the health and independence of tens of thousands of older people who suffer from osteoporosis are threatened by great inconsistencies in accessing vital services and treatment. Far too many people are suffering multiple fractures before their condition is properly diagnosed. Much unnecessary pain is caused and more permanent disability results from failures to diagnose osteoporosis in thousands of cases. Those failures add significantly to the future costs of the NHS and care system than would have been the case with early diagnosis The Committee has already heard from the noble Lord, Lord Black, of the significant cost savings to the NHS where a fracture liaison service is in place. The Royal Osteoporosis Society estimates that extending fracture liaison service provision to cover the whole population would require a modest initial investment of about £27 million in England and £2 million in Wales. There should be much more long-term cost-benefit analysis of provision such as this, and it would more than justify those sums of expenditure There are many examples in preventive healthcare where focused interventions dramatically improve outcomes for patients and cut long-term costs. We need to raise awareness of conditions such as osteoporosis, provide more education and training for healthcare providers about diagnosing it and increase support for people who suffer from it. Osteoporosis is a long-term condition. It is more prevalent than many people realise and we should all recognise that a spinal or hip fracture is equivalent to a heart attack or stroke in terms of its clinical implications. Fractures are often preventable through use of pharmacological treatments supported by lifestyle modifications, which include appropriate exercise and smoking cessation as well as nutritional supplements such as calcium and vitamin D There needs to be much greater public awareness of how to maintain or improve bone health, particularly for the most at-risk populations. The introduction of integrated care boards will provide an opportunity to better co-ordinate and integrate fracture prevention and osteoporosis care. It is currently too dispersed across different parts of the system, as so often our short debate on this group of amendments has shown is the case. For fracture liaison services we need universal access. We need a clear mandate from government that the new boards have a specific responsibility to provide fracture liaison services for the whole population.