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Health and Social Care Bill

The hon. Gentleman raises a further complication. Again, if everyone were fully paid for by the state, that complication would not arise, and that is the direction in which we want to move, but the Government will doubtless have to examine it. One Conservative Back Bencher talked about a lack of care in the health sector in general. Although this Government have increased spending on health by enormous sums, our spending levels remain considerably behind those of Germany and France. I believe that the latest figures show that France spends about 2.5 per cent. more of its gross domestic product on health than we do—that is equivalent to £50 million per constituency. If we had spent an extra £50 million per constituency on health in every one of the past 30 years, we would be in a rather different position. Resources are still not as plentiful in the British health service as they are on the continent of Europe—in Germany and France—in terms of scanners, nurses, beds and so on. I want us to move further in their direction, with even more generous funding for health than we have now. I want us to move towards the levels of funding in France and Germany. It is noticeable that in France one does not have to wait to see a doctor or to have an operation—I know from friends who live in France that that is the position. I want Britain to be like France; I do not want us constantly to pretend that the situation is much better than it is. It is not as good as it should be, even though it is a lot better than it was in 1997; we have made considerable progress since then. I urge my Front-Bench team to continue to press ahead with additional health service spending and to move towards the levels of expenditure in France and Germany. I am talking about not only the money, but the quality of provision that such funding will make possible. We will have this continuing problem with the Human Rights Act because of these anomalies in respect of self-funders. I have never supported the idea of self-funding or private care homes. We need proper funding and democratically accountable local care homes built into the community, where people are directly and permanently employed from the community. I am talking about people whose own relatives go to those care homes, as was the case in the care home in my constituency that I mentioned, which is now sadly closed., There was pressure from government to close a public sector care home because it did not have built-in, en suite facilities and all the other care home standards that the Government wanted. That care home has now gone, and the staff who worked in it have retired or moved on; that body of people who did such a wonderful job is no longer there. May I add that they were all solid trade unionists, belonging to my trade union, the GMB, and that some of them were even members of my party? They were wonderful people. That is the sort of care that I want, where people are community-based and there is accountability to the local authority. People should be publicly funded in proper, well-funded care homes that are free to all at the point of need. We are some way from having that, but when we do, the Human Rights Act will apply to all care home residents because they will all be in a relationship with the state in terms of their care. I have made these points before, and I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister does not mind hearing them again. I thank him for the progress on this issue and I will support the amendments.