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Hospital Trusts (Essex)

I heard one, Mr. Deputy Speaker, and I respect the fact that my hon. Friend was speaking for our right hon. Friend the Member for Basildon too in this regard. My hon. Friend is right to say that every possible step must be taken to improve standards, but the test that Monitor must apply—I met Monitor last week and discussed this in detail—is: what action is most likely to achieve the quickest improvement and turnaround at the trust? That is what matters, I would say, to his constituents and those patients served by the hospital. The judgment is: how can the trust get improvements as quickly as possible? In this case, Monitor's judgment was that action was needed to strengthen the clinical leadership in the trust—both the medical and nursing leadership—but that standards were likely to improve more quickly by keeping the action plan that had been developed under the leadership at the trust. Monitor assured me that the action plan that had been developed was a good one, but said that it did not believe that progress on it had been sufficient to date, hence the need for the escalation of its activities. I hear my hon. Friend's further concerns about the cleaning contract at the trust. I am afraid that I do not have a specific answer to give him today, but I will write to him in detail on that matter.