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Public Health (England)

I do not know about sexual health campaigns, but more investment certainly needs to be put into sexual health clinics. My own PCT has not been able to bring in chlamydia screening. It would have done had it not been for the top-slicing this year because of the irresponsibility and overspending in other parts of the national health service. I do not blame that so much on the Government. The PCT’s intention was to bring in better sexual health services. The inappropriate and irresponsible actions of other people working elsewhere in the health service meant that we were unable to do that this year. I wait with great interest to see if we will do it when we get back the money that has been top-sliced. I will be on my feet if we do not; let me put it no more strongly than that at this stage. In every case, Government action must be designed to enable people to make healthier choices for themselves and for their families. We know that individual choices play an increasingly important role in determining health outcomes, and that it is far harder for people to make healthier choices if they are struggling with unemployment or disability, trying to bring up a family on low income, live in a damp and overcrowded home or in a neighbourhood blighted by crime and antisocial behaviour. We know that for far too many people, the cards are stacked against them before they are even born. I say that despite the fact that this Government have greatly improved many of the factors behind the existence of greater health inequalities in some communities than in others. I say that despite the fact unemployment in my constituency has reduced dramatically, and employment has increased dramatically, under this Labour Government. That does not mean that everything is rosy in terms of health inequalities. It is not, and the Government recognise that. I am pleased that they do. We also know that things do not have to be like this. That is why, after decades, the Government have decided to do something about health inequality. To use the phrase that the hon. Member for Westbury (Dr. Murrison) used to describe health inequalities is nonsense. I will go on to the issue of widening health inequality; I will not duck it, but to say that it is Dickensian is nonsense.