argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): The pressures in the NHS mean that there is a need for more doctors for all sorts of reasons, and we do not have as many doctors as we need at the moment. That is why this Government are training more doctors and putting an extra £10 billion into the NHS. The manifesto that the hon. Lady stood on just over a year ago would not have put that sort of funding into the NHS and would have meant that we were unable to train that number of extra doctors. We are doing that, but it takes time and we need to ensure that services are safe while we are getting there.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Andrew William Murrison (Conservative, Centre-right): I congratulate my right hon. Friend on his balanced and reasonable approach in the negotiations despite provocation from people who really should know better. Does he agree that there cannot have been a single occasion in the history of the NHS other than this in which the General Medical Council—the body responsible for professional standards—has effectively had to intervene to stop a strike? Will he also admit that we might have underscored the centrality of Sir Bruce Keogh’s four clinical standards a little more when introducing the notion of the seven-day NHS?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): In response to my hon. Friend’s last point, we have been clear from the outset about what we mean by a seven-day NHS for hospital care, but a huge amount of misinformation has been put out. This time last year, for example, the BMA was telling many people that our plans were to cut pay by between 30% and 50%. That is why strikes are damaging. Positions get entrenched on both sides and misinformation sometimes gets out, as it has done, causing a lot of anxiety I agree with my hon. Friend about the GMC’s significant intervention. The medical regulator is completely independent of Government and has been clear that doctors have a responsibility not to take a decision under any circumstances that would lead to their patients being harmed.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for what she did alongside many colleagues working in A&E departments over many years, but to call this an imposition is a mischaracterisation given what actually happened. The contract was not only agreed, but recommended and supported by the leaders of the BMA. Before she was elected, we had many discussions in the House about whether negotiations were possible and what I should do, and there were a range of different views. In the end, I listened—just as she has asked me to today—and sat down and negotiated a deal that was supported by the BMA’s leaders. That is why it is so incomprehensible that those same leaders—the people who represent her and her profession—have now called the most extreme strike in NHS history.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Peter James Bottomley (Conservative, Centre-right): I put it to my right hon. Friend that the choice for junior doctors or doctors in training is whether they have the old contract or the agreed contract. I have not yet had a letter from any of my doctors saying that they think the old contract is better for them, for the health service or for patients. May I therefore recommend that they sign up willingly to the new contract, that they start discussions with the BMA, and through the royal colleges, on what should happen in a few years’ time when the contract itself comes up for review and that they work to improve the non-contractual situation, which my right hon. Friend has provided a good lead on?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right on that. In May, the BMA leadership, with whom we were having a very open discussion, had satisfied themselves that on the concerns many junior doctors have about their working conditions, many of which I accept are wholly legitimate, we had done pretty much everything we could inside a contract and the work that needed to be done was on the extra-contractual things. I am talking about the way the training system works when people are being rotated to a different hospital every six months, the fact that some people were being sent to a different city from their partner and how bad that was for family life, and all sorts of other things that need to be sorted out. Ironically, since the introduction of the working time directive, things have got a lot worse for many people, although we do not want to go back to the excessive hours of before. Those were the things we were patiently working through, and the way that is done is through dialogue, not confrontation, which is why this action is such a step backwards.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): With great respect to the hon. Gentleman, if I am wrong about this, so are the leaders of the BMA, because they said the contract that he says I should not impose was a good contract, safer for patients and for doctors, and good for the NHS, for equalities and for a range of things. The contract we are proceeding with is one that doctors’ leaders said was a good deal for junior doctors, so if we are going to resolve this, that is the contract we should proceed with.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Alistair James Hendrie Burt (Conservative, Centre-right): May I express my strong support for the Secretary of State, not only for the measured way in which he has handled today’s statement, but for the way in which he has conducted the negotiations, as shown by the 100-plus concessions that have been made to doctors’ negotiating positions over the past four years? Is not the inevitable logic of the BMA’s suspension of the strikes—I warmly welcome that—on the advice of other medical professionals that this should be applied in exactly the same way to the other strikes that have been called? The same logic would apply. Would it not be best for the BMA’s reputation to call off the rest of the strikes and to work with the Government on the other non-contractual areas that need to be dealt with, so that we can move forward from this, end this period of confrontation, get the health service that we all believe in and end some of this silly rhetoric coming from those who suggest that Conservative Members do not believe in the NHS?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): We do and we are implementing it. I know that the hon. Lady has looked at this in great detail, and I simply say, in broad terms, that following the tragedy of what happened at Mid Staffs the NHS was very honest about how some of the poor care there was happening in other places and NHS trusts decided that they needed to have more staff in their hospital wards. The poor workforce planning that she talked about, which goes back many decades in the NHS, meant that the result was an explosion in the use of agency staff, the cost of which rose to more than £3.5 billion in the last financial year, which has put huge pressure on finances. The lesson that we must take away, not just for the junior doctors’ strike, but for financial sustainability, is that we need to be better at workforce planning and training up the number of doctors and nurses that we need.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Julian Murray Lewis (Conservative, Centre-right): In other words, I am totally unqualified as a medical doctor. Therefore, may I ask a question about democratic mandates? I appreciate that, unlike a referendum, a general election does not give an entirely specific mandate on every proposal put forward, but will the Secretary of State take the opportunity to remind the House and the country of how central the proposal for a seven-day NHS was to the Conservative manifesto as far as his Department was concerned?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): My right hon. Friend is right, as that was our only really substantive promise in terms of a commitment to the NHS at the last election. We are funding it and we have an absolute obligation to the British people to deliver on it. That is why in that short period after the last election I felt I had to be clear with the BMA that we were going to deliver on that manifesto promise. If the BMA had reflected on that, it might have perhaps behaved differently from how it did.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Michael Louis David Fabricant (Conservative, Centre-right): Last Thursday, I was at Queen’s hospital in Burton having a minor skin procedure—hence my black eye—where I met not just junior doctors and consultants, but patients. Let me tell my right hon. Friend how concerned they are about this series of strikes. They just do not understand it, as one junior doctor said to me—he may or may not have been in the minority. Dr Johann Malawana, the previous BMA representative for junior doctors, said that this was a "good deal" for junior doctors—I noted that down at the time. One point that was made to me was that this constant defence of BMA action by the Labour party and, in particular, by the Labour spokesman is regarded as being encouragement for these strikes, whether she means to do it or not. May I urge her to say, "Look, it is not good enough. It is not good enough for patients and it is not good enough for the NHS"?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is absolutely right. All of us in this debate have one simple thing to consider: what is the right answer for the people we represent? They understand that there are financial constraints and that the NHS cannot do everything, but they do want us to strive to make it safer and better the whole time. It is a surprise and a disappointment that we do not hear more of that language from the Labour party.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
William David Wiggin (Conservative, Centre-right): My constituents who are patients do not want this strike, and I do not believe that my constituents who are doctors want this escalation in industrial action. If it is the case that only 4% of doctors support this escalation, should the BMA not again check its mandate?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): It absolutely should. The BMA has been out of step with both the British public and its own members this week. My hon. Friend’s own hospital in Hereford—Hereford county hospital—is in special measures. It has a huge number of problems, which it is working really hard to sort out, and we are helping it to sort them out. Is that not what we should be focusing on in the NHS, rather than having to do contingency planning for these damaging strikes?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Alexander John Gervase Chalk (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Secretary of State agree that the actions of the BMA in warmly backing the contract in May only to condemn it in August and call for these extreme strikes have seriously damaged its credibility? On the issue of pay, which we know from the leaked WhatsApp messages is the only red line, can he confirm that no doctor working legal hours will be paid less?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): Yes, I can absolutely confirm that. We have put in place pay protection to make that happen. My hon. Friend is right that this is very damaging for his constituents in Cheltenham. Given that there is so much pressure in the NHS, the junior doctors who are thinking of striking must ask themselves whether it is really going to help their organisation respond to those pressures if it has this enormous distraction—this incredible demoralisation that we get with these kinds of strikes.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Michael Jon Wood (Conservative, Centre-right): Does my right hon. Friend share my disappointment that the BMA leader who co-authored the new contract and said that it was beneficial for our patients and for our junior doctors is now trying to whip up support for a series of strikes that every credible medical leader has said would be disproportionate and harmful to patients?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
David Thomas Morris (Conservative, Centre-right): The fact that these strikes are occurring and being called off is very serious, especially against the backdrop of this contract. One of my constituents, who is a doctor, the chairman of Doctors in Unite and the deputy chairman of the BMA, stated in the Sunday Times that this issue could be used to beat the Tories and make the country great again. Does my right hon. Friend agree that it is appalling that patients across the country are being used as pawns in the political game of "Corbynista-ism"?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I completely agree. I am afraid that this is where I am very, very disappointed with the Labour party. Thrilled though it might be to have so many supporters of the leader in the more extreme ranks of the BMA, it helps no one to try to use the NHS as a political pawn and to weaponise the NHS as it tried so destructively to do before the last election.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Philip Thomas Hollobone (Conservative, Centre-right): Kettering general hospital is under pressure on a number of fronts. Even if the industrial action does not take place, the threat of it diverts key personnel from their normal difficult task of contingency planning, filling rotas and making sure that patients stay as safe as possible. Does my right hon. Friend agree that even the threat of industrial action does huge harm to our hospitals and the NHS?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I am more than happy to agree with my hon. Friend. The staff at Kettering general hospital work extremely hard. I have been there, as he knows. It is a very busy hospital. One shudders to think what the impact would be if we removed a third of the doctor workforce in a hospital such as that.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): I was just reading an article from earlier in the year from The Guardian newspaper, which said that Saturday working is the major sticking point in the junior doctors’ dispute. Does the Secretary of State agree that any doctor who goes on strike over premium rates of pay on a Saturday, which most people in this country do not get when they work on a Saturday, should hang their heads in shame? Will he give a commitment that he will not make any further concessions, as he has already given far too many. Is it not time to look at whether we stop doctors from going on strike altogether in the NHS, as is the case with other emergency services?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Kevin John Foster (Conservative, Centre-right): I know that the Secretary of State will agree that what sums up this dispute is that, under the existing contract unless the new one is brought in, we could be treated by a doctor working their 91st hour in a week. Does he agree that it is absolutely bizarre to see this level of strike action called when even the BMA’s own council was so divided over whether to support it?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): That is absolutely right. What my hon. Friend is alluding to is the fact that, in the new contract, we are reducing the maximum hours that any doctor can be asked to work in any one week from 91 hours to 72 hours. There are all sorts of other safeguards that benefit safety. He is right. This should not be happening, and I urge the BMA to reconsider.
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Richard Grosvenor Plunkett-Ernle-Erle-Drax (Conservative, Centre-right): May I offer my support to my right hon. Friend. I have never heard him vilify the doctors, as he was accused of doing. That language was not appropriate in this debate. Is he aware—I have heard this from one chief executive—that hospitals have been told not to speak to the junior doctors to try to resolve the dispute within the hospitals and the foundation trusts themselves? If there has been such an instruction, does he agree that it will not help solve the dispute for the future?
Junior Doctors: Industrial Action — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Jeremy Richard Streynsham Hunt (Conservative, Centre-right): I am very surprised to hear that. If my hon. Friend wants to pass me the details, I will happily look into it. On the ground, the management of hospitals are working very closely with not just junior doctors, but BMA representatives to try to do everything they can to keep patients safe if these strikes go ahead.
Private Finance 2/Private Finance Initiative — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): I can certainly guarantee that it will be as soon as possible. The thing is we need the data to be able to report on them. Most of these projects are only just starting, so I am sure that we will have it as soon as is reasonable The hon. Lady mentions alternatives. I am fortunate to have in my constituency, Brighton Kemptown, a fantastic new hospital being built at nearly £500 million. It is not using PFI or PF2. It is the Royal Sussex county hospital. Each of these projects is financed in different ways, but all projects should provide the best value for money for the taxpayer.
Private Finance 2/Private Finance Initiative — House of Commons, 2016-09-05
Topic: Health
Simon Kirby (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank the hon. Lady for raising that question. I am happy to reassure her and give her a commitment that I will look at any solution that provides value for money. If that means that we should have more competition, so be it. We have a responsibility as a Government to get the best possible value for money for the taxpayer. In many cases we are historically in a difficult position. Her hospital finance was agreed in 2006, if I remember correctly. It is very difficult to unwind, but if she is asking me whether it is the Government’s intention to get the best possible deal, the answer is yes. If, after all the necessary investigation and consideration, it was appropriate to follow the route that she suggests, I would certainly consider that I reiterate that the issue is important. There is surprising agreement across the House. We all want to see the best possible public services and we all want the best possible deal for our constituents and the taxpayers who pay for these vital infrastructure projects, but we must be realistic about what we can change from the past. That does not mean that we should give up and accept that it is not possible to provide a better deal. We aim to achieve the best possible value always, because that is what the public expect and what the nation’s finances need, and it is what I and this Government will do our best to deliver Question put and agreed to.
Digital Technology — House of Commons, 2016-09-07
Topic: Health
Benedict Gummer (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend is entirely right that it will be a digital solution that brings the most advantage to the area of the health service that she identifies. I am glad that the close working of the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch, NHS Improvement and the NHS Litigation Authority, enabled through digital, will mean that we can reduce never events and serious untoward incidents.
Engagements — House of Commons, 2016-09-07
Topic: Health
Questions: I very much welcome the statement from the Chancellor on support payments for farmers up to 2020 to give confidence to farming and the countryside. British farmers produce some of the best welfare-friendly and environmentally friendly food in the world. We need to make sure that both farming and the food processing industry are protected in any trade deals we make. I seek that reassurance from my right hon. Friend.; Last week the Children’s Society published a report which showed that 10% of children feel their lives have little meaning or purpose. I know that the Prime Minister understands the importance of tackling mental health because she raised it in her Downing Street speech. What further action does she propose to increase mental health support in our schools?
Theresa Mary May (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. and learned Friend raises an important point, and there has, I think, been a collective concern about the way in which mental health is dealt with. That is why we have put a record £1.4 billion into transforming the dedicated mental health support that is available to young people across the country. That includes £150 million for services to support children and young people with eating disorders. There are various other things, too: we are publishing a blueprint for school counselling services, because my hon. and learned Friend is right that the role that schools play is very important, and I know that my right hon. Friend the Education Secretary will be looking very closely at the "Good Childhood Report" to see what more we can do.
Allies and Partners: Co-operation — House of Commons, 2016-06-27
Topic: Defense
Michael Fallon (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope you will allow me, Mr Speaker, to add my tribute to Jo Cox and her work on behalf of the Syrian people, which she pressed very hard on and which must never be forgotten Our strategic defence review set out ambitious plans to strengthen our work with allies and partners to promote our security and prosperity. We will continue to lead in NATO, the G7 and the United Nations, and maintain strong and enduring relationships with the United States and our other friends and allies around the world.
Allies and Partners: Co-operation — House of Commons, 2016-06-27
Topic: Defense
Michael Fallon (Conservative, Centre-right): The bedrock of our defence in the United Kingdom rests on NATO, and the United Kingdom of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland is committed to strengthening co-operation within NATO and collective defence across the alliance. We will be adding further reassurance to that at the NATO summit that is coming up in Warsaw the week after next.
Allies and Partners: Co-operation — House of Commons, 2016-06-27
Topic: Defense
James Whiteside Gray (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Secretary of State agree that our relationship with members of the EU will remain as strong as it is today even when we are not a member? Given that nearly all members of the European Union are members of NATO, and that most members of NATO, leaving aside Turkey and the United States, are members of the EU, surely the fact that we are that cornerstone of NATO stands for our strong defence, and being a member of both involves some degree of duplication.