Alan Johnson, Health secretary, Live webchat here on Weds 16th April 12.20-1.15

[carriemumsnet]

Alan Johnson, Labour's Secretary of State for Health, will be here on Weds to answer your questions about the NHS. He's happy to talk about anything health -policy related, but some of the topics he's specifically covering during "health week" are: access to NHS services, hospital cleanliness, midwife provision, and a "personal" NHS offering maximum choice and control over the services they use.

As always, those of you who can't make it on the day can post your questions in advance here. Or grab a sarnie (healthy of course ) on Weds lunchtime and come and pose your questions in person.

Mr JOhnson said: "In answer to Branshott - there is a debate about the value of annual/bi-annual check ups particularly because of the concern that GP surgeries, pharmacies etc will be full of the worried well "

Wouldn't it be better to have clinics full of 'worried well' rather than the current approach where many people only reach the NHS in an emergency?

This concept of 'worried well' is a politician's excuse for not doing anything.

I think that Branshott's point was that these annual check-ups should be a universal right, reaching everyone, in order to prevent worse - and more expensive - long term illness.

Mr JOhnson said: "In answer to Branshott - there is a debate about the value of annual/bi-annual check ups particularly because of the concern that GP surgeries, pharmacies etc will be full of the worried well "

Wouldn't it be better to have clinics full of 'worried well' rather than the current approach where many people only reach the NHS in an emergency?

This concept of 'worried well' is a politician's excuse for not doing anything.

I think that Branshott's point was that these annual check-ups should be a universal right, reaching everyone, in order to prevent worse - and more expensive - long term illness.

Alan

Would you like to put a bid wodge of cash Mumsnet's way to trawl for our expert opinions (like a big focus group), and in return we'll help to shape Govt health policy?

pretty please..

We'd love to be part of the review - however, the regulations do not cover follow on milk, and fail to include press placement such as we saw recently in OK magazine.
I also believe that Trading Standards find it hard to enforce the current legislation, and that the manufacturers have been given outrageously long times to comly.

Baby foods should also be covered to ensure that complementary foods are not labelled as suitable under 6 months.

Alan,

What is the Secretary of State?s Department doing to help ensure that parents get help to support their children?s language development? I read recently that in some areas between 40-50% of children have some form of communication difficulty.

Does the Secretary of State recognise that for mums and dads of children with these difficulties, getting information and access to services is a major worry?

To the question Itscoldtoday and others asked on the question of choice - choice is not an end in itself, it's a mean to an end, the end itself being better quality. It's not the only way of achieving better quality but it's an important facet of achieving better quality healthcare. I think that the view of the NHS was that people should be grateful for what they received whereas if you wanted things like choice and a more personalised service that was somehow the exclusive provision of the private sector. Of course we want every hospital to be of the highest quality and most of them are. However, somebody going in for a hip replacement will want to know what the rate of healthcare acquired infections is; what the food is like; the visiting times etc and may want to have the operation in a hospital closer to where their family lives. The vast majority of people will go to their local hospital but it seems to me to be an anomoly in the 21st century for us to insist that whereas citizens have choice in so many areas of their live now that it should somehow cease when they enter the portals of the NHS. Incidentally, now that we have established the single tarrif so that the NHS pays the same amount for eg a hip operation wherever it takes place, it means that we can utilise private hospitals to ensure that we have adequate capacity and that we don't go back to waiting times of 2 years and more as happened under the previous government

Sorry, and yet again, you've missed the fact that breastfeeding should be exclusively for 6 months, and continue for 2 years.

Infant nutrition is vital as it shapes a childs future health in terms of obesity, diabetes, allergies and autoimmune conditions, which is why marketing, advertising and labelling is crucial in this area.

We know that parents and families fail to get good support from their HCPs, and so are very vunerable to the sophisticated marketing of companies like Nestle

I'd like to know how you think Gordon Brown is doing? Do you think he'll survive the current turmoil?

I love you for mentioning the North/ South divide, in your first post even! Genius!

To the question asked by monkeybird, JT, willow etc on hygeine, cleaning and superbugs - to be frank I don't think that the NHS treated this as the high priority issue that it is. There was a certain complacency in the system which is thankfully being eliminated. NHS frontline workers knew how important cleanliness was but it didn't figure large enough in the overall priorities. In terms of what we're doing now, it's not just deep clean - there is no single solution to the problem and deep clean was symbolic of the need to ensure the highest standards of cleanliness and hygeine. The three crucial areas remain - hand washing, responsible prescribing of anti-biotics and isolation facilities with cohort nursing. The latest stats show MRSA rates down by 18% on the previous quarter; C.Diff down by 21%. Across Europe most countries are seeing an increase. The question of nurses uniforms often comes up. There is actually no evidence that this is a major part of the problem. However, in many trusts nurses are not encouraged to wear uniforms outside of the hospital because if the public perceive this to be part of the problem it helps public confidence to ensure that it doesn't happen. We wouldn't dictate this kind of issue from Whitehall and it is a matter for local Acute Trusts.

Wasn't the recent "deep clean" just a PR exercise? (which failed anyway)

?

Alan do you use cut and paste?....I ask because your typing is very nice and you could teach some peeps on here a thing or three about speed typing

Why do you have to wait until you are 20 weeks pregnant to get a scan in some parts of the country I'm in Bristol? Mine was at 23 weeks what would have happened if I had needed an abortion, it would have been carried out past the legal limit and everyone would have known I was pregnant as I would have been showing and the emotional trauma I don;t even what to think about it. Will you change policy that every women gets a scan at 12 weeks.

emmybel

The way things are all going a bit Pete Tong for old Gordon at the minute, I'm sure AJ will get another crack at the job before too long.

Mr Johnson

Do you believe that all women should have the right to give birth the way they prefer, even if that means they opt for an elective c-section ?

Hello.

My daughter was referrred to the speech and language threrapy service when she was 2 years and 9 months. She had her initial assessment 8 weeks after that, was put on the waiting list, and was given her follow up appointment 13 months after that, when she had already turned 4.

Is this due to a crisis in recruitment or funding? Are there targets for SALT waiting lists?

In response to saffy1 and others - as I said to somebody who asked me this yesterday I think Gordon Brown is a serious man for serious times. If you want somebody who will invite the cameras in while he shakes out the shreddies over breakfast he's not your man and he won't be telling how many girls he kissed behind the bike shed. That's not to say that Gordon's not good company - he's just a very private man and he is absolutely focused on the major problems which this country faces. I suppose you wouldn't expect me to say anything other than this, but I really do believe that he's a good man, leading a good government that's doing good things.

To stoppinattwo - I have found a wonderful way of improving my typing both in relation to the quality and the speed - she's called Sue!

I think the NHS cleaners did treat it as a high priority - when it was inhouse and there was a cleaner with responsibility for a particular area, so they had real pride in keeping their ward spotless.

I have worked in the NHS before and after cleaning became an outsourced area, and it was patently obvious that it was at that point that standards slipped hugely. Cleaning was then just treated as something that someone would pop in and do once per day, rather than the continuous process that could occur before. And anyone who has no feedback or feeling of responsibility for their job, just won't clean to the same standards.

well done Sue

So your talking and sue is typing.......... I knew it.....no man can speed type and think at the same time

Hi sue

that's how bbc do it, webchats that is

Do you boycott nestle?

Alan

A bit of a cheap shot there re the shreddies and kissing.

My question would be how would you encourage mothers to re enter the work place and give them affordable and flexible working arrangements and child care. I know of a number of highly qualified women who have opted out of a career to have children and cannot get back in to the career ladder due to the inflexibility of employers.
How would you incentivise them both?

To pyjamarama - your specific point is I think related to the attempts to ensure Government money for further and higher education is focused remorselessly on the millions of people who have no qualifications at all and where the Leitch Report predicted that we would have serious problems if it wasn't addressed. However, having said that, I am concerned that one of the reasons why so few women end up in senior positions in the NHS is that although our medical schools have more and more women graduates, the system doesn't allow any flexibility at senior level. In one sense this is understandable given that consultants have to be called back out to see patients when problems occur. I am convinced that there is more we can do in relation to the kinds of opportunities we can offer to women coming back into the NHS after maternity leave or any other reason for a break in service. I have talked to our senior clinicians in the Department about this and we will be working on this over the coming period. I'll also look at the specific point you've raised in relation to funding because I can see how counter-productive it is to lose the investment that the tax payer has put into putting the investment in providing you with the skills you have.

Dear Alan, is the Kinder Hotel advert on this thread annoying you as much as it is me?

But back to the serious stuff. How do you propose to solve the problems midwives and mothers have to deal with in continuity in care?
I saw seven different midwives with my first, and as a result hired a Doula for my second. Not everyone can afford such a luxury. Why are maternity services so underfunded and why do the midwives have to struggle through a system they know is wrong but can do nothing about?