John Redwood

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Shadow Health Secretary Supports Berkshire Hospitals

The Rt Hon John Redwood MP raised constituents’ concerns about the level of infections in large hospitals with the shadow Health Secretary in the House of Commons yesterday.  In Response, Andrew Lansley also pointed out that Berkshire does not receive a fair share of health spending.

A copy of the exchange is below:

Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Does my hon. Friend agree not only that people are upset about having to travel much longer distances to hospital, but they are worried that when they are in those large monopoly hospitals they will be more prone to hospital-acquired infections, which puts them at considerable risk when they are already vulnerable?

Mr. Lansley: I share my right hon. Friend’s concerns. Furthermore, he represents a part of the country that secures the lowest per capita distribution of resources. The Select Committee on Health made it clear, as we had argued, that there should be a review of the resource allocation formula to make it fairer in distributing resources relative to the burden of disease. It is interesting that the Secretary of State’s predecessor handed him one admission of our arguments. Only the week before last, the right hon. Lady said that the Advisory Committee on Resource Allocation should be given Bank of England-style independence. She acknowledged that we were right and that it had been the subject of political interference. In a letter to me on her last day in office, she also accepted our argument that the principal cause of variation in health-related need in the burden of disease is age, so as an urgent measure I look forward to an independent review of resource allocation to deliver a fairer distribution across the country.