HC Deb 21 December 1999 vol 341 cc660-2
11. Mr. Nigel Waterson (Eastbourne)

If he will make a statement about the standards of NHS care available to elderly patients. [102272]

The Minister of State, Department of Health (Mr. John Hutton)

The Government are committed to ensuring high standards of care in the national health service for all patients. Our forthcoming national health service framework for older people will set out for the first time new national standards for the treatment and care of older patients. It will be published next year. In the meantime, we have taken action across a number of areas to improve the care of older people. For example, we have extended the annual immunisation programme for influenza to ensure that everyone aged over 75 can have the flu vaccine free of charge. From 1 April, everyone over 60 has been eligible again for free eye tests, regardless of their income or health status.

Mr. Waterson

Does the Minister accept that Age Concern has concluded that, contrary to existing guidelines, one in 20 older people are denied treatment because of their age? The Daily Telegraph has also found that significant numbers of elderly patients are literally being starved to death. Does the Minister accept those findings, and what is he doing about them?

Mr. Hutton

We do not accept the accusation that nurses and doctors are routinely killing patients in the national health service. That ludicrous and absurd allegation strikes directly at the integrity and professionalism of nurses and doctors, and we reject it absolutely. We take criticisms about discrimination on the basis of age in the NHS very seriously. As part of our work on the national health service framework, we are developing new standards on fair access to NHS treatment and care for older patients.

We take the allegations of discrimination seriously, and I am sure that the hon. Gentleman will be aware of the steps that we have taken to establish, for example, the new Commission for Health Improvement, which will have a specific role on the implementation of the new framework for older people. Discrimination of any kind is fundamentally unacceptable as it strikes at the principles and ethos on which the NHS was established. Labour established the NHS, and we shall defend those principles.

Mr. Bill O'Brien (Normanton)

I welcome my hon. Friend's statement on future provision for the care of the elderly. However, I have received a significant number of complaints from my constituents and from people throughout the Wakefield area on the problems being encountered at the Pinderfields and Pontefract hospitals NHS trust. Will the Minister say something about guidelines to the trust? May I welcome the 6.9 per cent. increase in resources for Wakefield health authority, which will help to address the problems of many constituents who have respiratory diseases? A great number of elderly asthma sufferers live in my area, and the increase will help them considerably. Will the Minister issue instructions to hospital trusts on the future care of the elderly?

Mr. Hutton

I certainly want to reassure my hon. Friend about his concerns. We have taken the step of developing new national standards, which will be introduced next year, on the treatment and care of older people in the NHS to allay such anxieties. I also remind him, although I am sure that he needs no reminding of it, that, as part of our work on health action zones in his part of Yorkshire, a particular strand of work is devoted to improving the treatment and care of older people.

We take all those concerns and criticisms very seriously. We want the NHS to provide the highest possible standards of care for older people and to ensure that those with complaints are properly heard and their problems addressed. I reassure my hon. Friend and the House that the Government are determined to ensure the best possible standards of treatment and care for older people, who make up the largest age group that uses the NHS. They represent 16 per cent. of the population, but 40 per cent. of the NHS' s resources are devoted to their care.

Mr. Julian Brazier (Canterbury)

Is the Minister aware of the concern among my constituents at the way in which East Kent health authority's new blueprint for our hospital service has marginalised care for the elderly? Is he further aware that the excellent Nunnery Fields hospital, which cares for elderly stroke patients, is mentioned directly only once in the document—when an estimate is given of how much money could be realised by selling it?

Mr. Hutton

I am not aware of the particular concerns that the hon. Gentleman has raised. I will look into them on his behalf, but, again, I point out that, as part of our work this year on developing the new national service framework for older people, a specific group is looking particularly at stroke care and treatment. We are doing that important work in consultation with the Stroke Association. We are looking seriously and actively at improving stroke care throughout the country, but I will look into the specific matters that he raised about East Kent health authority.