Engagements — House of Commons, 2022-01-05
Topic: Health
Questions: The biggest factor driving up our fuel bills and cost of living is the sky-rocketing international price of gas, which is currently dancing to a tune set in Moscow. Does the Prime Minister agree that Labour’s short-term proposals to shift the burden from bill payers to taxpayers will not address the fundamental underlying problem at all, and that the crisis demands structural reforms to the energy price cap, rather than just resetting it to later this year, as well as energy self-sufficiency to uncouple us from Russian gas?; The London Borough of Bromley has achieved the fastest and most significant improvement in children’s services of any local authority in England. Much of the credit is due to its exceptional chief executive, Mr Ade Adetosoye. Will my right hon. Friend join me in congratulating Mr Adetosoye on his appointment as a Commander of the British Empire in the new year honours list, and congratulate the Conservative majority on the council on delivering the only debt-free council in London?; Hospitalisations in London have peaked, so the Prime Minister was absolutely right to hold his nerve on new restrictions in the last few weeks, but does he agree that the NHS faces not just omicron staffing absences, but permanent and dangerous staffing shortfalls in nearly every specialty? Will he end the cycle whereby those shortfalls continually threaten not just patient care, but sometimes even our freedoms, by overhauling workforce planning by backing Baroness Cumberlege’s amendment to the Health and Care Bill in the House of Lords, having a word with his neighbour in Downing Street and making 2022 the year we finally solve this problem?; Diolch yn fawr iawn, Lefarydd. My mother, Dr Nancy Saville, was diagnosed with dementia just before Christmas. She had a stroke a year ago. I was called to sit with her in hospital on Monday because of a covid staff shortage but I fear that, like many of our constituents in similar circumstances, we are likely to be separated indefinitely when she is moved into an EMI, or elderly mentally infirm, nursing home. John’s Campaign has successfully campaigned in every UK nation that people disabled by dementia have a special need for person-centred care—under the Equality Act 2010—but in reality there remain many care homes and hospitals where even the most minimal visits can be denied, leading to isolation and separation, which cause irreversible damage to wellbeing. Does he agree that the human rights of disabled people, sick people and the elderly are not fair-weather luxuries, and that everyone with dementia, wherever they live, has the right to family life?
Alexander Boris de Pfeffel Johnson (Conservative, Centre-right): May I extend my deepest sympathies to the right hon. Lady? I am sure the whole House, and everybody who has listened, will have shared her feelings and will simply wish to extend their condolences in view of her mother’s condition. I know how her feelings must be exacerbated by the difficulties that so many people up and down the country are facing because of the restrictions that we are having to put on care homes, and I sympathise deeply. We do have to try to strike a balance and to keep home care residents safe and to do what we can to prevent the epidemic from taking hold in care homes. We continue to allow three nominated visitors to care homes, and there should be no limit to the duration of those visits. I understand the particular distress and anxiety that the right hon. Lady’s circumstances are causing. May I suggest that she has a meeting, as soon as it can be arranged, with my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care?