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Emergency Care

No, I have to stick to my time; that is the problem with this sort of debate. The point is that the issue of the 116 number could be addressed almost immediately. I am really disappointed that the right hon. Member for Enfield, North (Joan Ryan) is not in her place. She made a contribution of nearly 15 minutes, in which her position on the future of Chase Farm hospital flip-flopped. In the consultation on Chase Farm she opted for option 1, which is to downgrade the Chase Farm A and E facilities. That was her position then. Her position today is that she is fighting to keep all the facilities at Chase Farm. The right hon. Lady cannot have her cake and eat it. Either she is for her Government, who are willing to close the A and E department at Chase Farm, or she is not. It will be this Government who will close the A and E departments at Chase Farm hospital, at Welwyn Hatfield hospital and, yes, at Hemel Hempstead hospital. That is something that I go on and on about, and I am very proud to do so. The reason why I go on about it so hard—it is also why my hon. Friend the Member for Enfield, Southgate (Mr. Burrowes) is in his place, unlike the right hon. Member for Enfield, North—is that the community does not want to lose the life-saving facilities that they have now. The Secretary of State was trying desperately to say that we should take no notice of the experts who say that an urgent care centre—or whatever title we want to use—is not a replacement for an A and E department. The right hon. Lady went on about the myths propagated in her constituency; and interestingly enough, she came up with a myth herself. She should have looked at the report that the College of Emergency Medicine published just before Christmas. The College of Emergency Medicine issued a list of myths, and the right hon. Lady managed to hit the first one. ““Myth 1,”” the College of Emergency Medicine says, is that"““60 per cent. of patients attending an A&E department could be seen, to the same clinical standards, at less cost, in other settings””—[Interruption.]" I understand from my hon. Friend the Member for South Cambridgeshire (Mr. Lansley) that the Secretary of State said the same thing. In fact, the College of Emergency Medicine—I am sure that the Secretary of State would agree that it is an expert—says:"““Between 5 and 10 per cent. of patients attending an Emergency Department…should be treated in primary care””." We accept that. It continues:"““Another 20 per cent. of patients could be treated in primary care””" settings, but that is it. So the absolute maximum percentage of patients attending an A and E who could—not should—be treated is 30 per cent. The myth propagated by the Secretary of State and by the right hon. Lady is that it was 60 per cent. That, frankly, is wrong. My hon. Friend the Member for West Chelmsford provided a wealth of experience—not only from his time as a shadow Minister, but as a member of the Health Select Committee before my time on it—and showed us just what could be done if we engage with the hospital in the local community. The information that he put forward was absolutely vital. I completely agree with him that many of the problems of emergency departments are to do with alcohol and alcohol abuse, and I agree with him about the assaults and abuse that NHS hospital staff have to take. The Government could do something about that tomorrow—and the Secretary of State could do something about it tomorrow. Why are only one in 1,000 assaults on our brave and professional emergency staff prosecuted? Perhaps the Secretary of State or his ministerial colleague would like to intervene to explain why our staff are assaulted on a daily basis, yet prosecutions do not take place. The right hon. Gentleman said at the start of his speech that he was dedicated to the staff and he praised them, so why are we not protecting them? My hon. Friend raised a very important issue.