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General Practice (Northamptonshire)

The tone of the hon. Gentleman's presentation was to talk down the NHS and its performance, and to use anecdotes to say that the Government's desire to respond to patient preference and choice is misguided. He did not refer to the fact that at his party's conference, the shadow Secretary of State waged war on the GP profession by saying that the Tory party's position is to rip up GPs' contracts. The hon. Gentleman rightly referred to access to children's mental health services. The Government have begun to rebuild child and adolescent mental health services—CAMHS—and have put a lot more money into them, but there is a long way to go because, as you are aware, Mr. Taylor, such services were practically non-existent in many parts of the country back in 1997-98. We have two trailblazers and another 11 are starting now. Access to talking therapies through primary care in every community is something that I am proud of, and later today there will be further announcements about health spend over the next three or four years. It is important that in future, there will be greater emphasis on investing in talking therapies, which can make a massive difference to people's quality of life and mental health. There was no access to talking therapies in this country when we came into government, and people waited months and years for an operation. By next year, people will wait a maximum of 18 weeks. The hon. Gentleman's community should respond positively to the Darzi interim review proposals. There will be more than 100 new GP practices, including up to 900 GPs, nurses and health care assistants in the 25 per cent. of PCTs with the poorest provision. It may well be that the hon. Gentleman's constituency could benefit from that. New resources will enable PCTs to develop some 150 GP-run health centres, with up to 1,750 GPs and nurses situated in easily accessible locations and offering a range of services to all members of their local population. As a result of last week's interim review announcement by Lord Darzi and the Secretary of State, the hon. Gentleman may be able to secure even more resources for primary care for his constituents. The hon. Gentleman raised valid and legitimate issues, but it is important that we do not allow people to suggest that the health service has not advanced massively. In our vision for transformation, personalisation is the next stage, and the Government will match that with continued and sustained record levels of investment. Question put and agreed to.