John Redwood

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Rt. Hon John Redwood MP pressed the Secretary of State for Health to reaffirm her commitment to Health Service Centres

In the House of Commons yesterday, the Rt. Hon John Redwood MP pressed the Secretary of State for Health to reaffirm her commitment to Health Service Centres, and called for this scheme to be extended into the Reading area where hey would expand capacity and help those who are unable to get the treatment they require at the moment.

Mr. John Redwood (Wokingham) (Con): Will the Secretary of State promise that she is still very much in favour of this experiment? I would like to see these centres in the Reading area, where they would expand capacity and help people in my area who cannot get the treatment that they need at the moment. Will she promise not to rig the system against them in the way that many Labour Members seem to wish to do?

Ms Hewitt: The right hon. Gentleman is simply wrong on that point. It is clearly right that independent sector treatment centres should make training opportunities available; that is one of the lessons that we learned from wave 1. I completely agree with him, however, that the centres have helped to cut waiting times for NHS patients in many parts of the country, and all the treatment that they provide is on the NHS and free at the point of need. That is what matters to patients.