‘The perils of running on an icy road in February!’ Tory MP Jeremy Hunt shares photo from hospital bed after breaking his arm in fall – then takes part in Commons debate wearing sling
- Mr Hunt told MPs he spent morning at Royal Surrey County Hospital after the slip
- Former health secretary appeared virtually in debate on health and care future
- He went on to thank the hospital’s staff for his treatment following the accident
Jeremy Hunt shared a photo from his hospital bed today after breaking his arm whilst jogging – then wore a sling as he took part in a Commons debate just hours later.
The Conservative chairman of the Health and Social Care Committee told MPs he had spent the morning at the Royal Surrey County Hospital after slipping in the icy conditions.
The former health secretary, who appeared virtually in the debate on the future of health and care wearing a blue sling, went on to thank the hospital’s staff for his treatment.
In a post on his Facebook page, Mr Hunt uploaded a picture of himself in a hospital bed next to NHS worker Charlotte, who had put a plaster cast on his arm
He told MPs: ‘Can I start my comments by thanking the brilliant staff at the Royal Surrey County Hospital for the wonderful care they gave me this morning, as it happens, when I unfortunately slipped over and broke my arm on a morning run and I have just come back from there.’
In an earlier post on his Facebook page, Mr Hunt uploaded a picture of himself in a hospital bed next to NHS worker Charlotte, who had put a plaster cast on his arm.
The caption read: ‘The perils of running on an icy road in February.
‘Thanks to Charlotte and the brilliant Royal Surrey staff for looking after me so well! Happy Hunt children will now get busy drawing pictures…’
It comes after Matt Hancock said today ‘now is exactly the right time’ to reform the NHS as he unveiled plans to join up hospitals, GPs and social care into local bubbles.
The Health Secretary has published a white paper outlining how the health service will be divided up into ‘integrated care systems’ across England.
It will also give the Department of Health controlling power of the NHS, with its current chief executive Sir Simon Stevens expected to resign by the end of this year.
Mr Hancock, who has been criticised for launching wide-ranging changes to the health service during one of the toughest periods in its history as it battles the Covid-19 epidemic, said there is ‘no better time than now’ to do it because it will take so long to get the plans approved and put them into action.
The former health secretary, who appeared virtually in the debate on the future of health and care wearing a blue sling, went on to thank the hospital’s staff for his treatment
Committee chairman Mr Hunt, pictured in 2019, is often seen jogging around the capital
The Government has pledged to ‘bust bureaucracy’ in the health service and the plan could see England’s 152 major hospital trusts and 135 clinical commissioning groups, which control GP practices, condensed down into 42 boards to control all local health services with one massive budget for each area.
Ideally this will mean long-term sick patients – of whom there are a constantly growing number as the population ages – will be able to move seamlessly between family doctors, hospitals and care workers. Currently these services are separated.
This was already the NHS’s plan – it is under way already and expected to cover the whole of England by 2021, but this reform gives the Department of Health control over them.
The reform will also remove the need for NHS bodies to offer up expensive healthcare contracts to private companies and allow them to keep them in-house.
Previously, contracts worth more than £615,000 had to be put through a tendering process meaning private companies could get them if they undercut NHS prices. Unions said this was in danger of turning medical care into a competitive market.
On the surface this looks to be a step away from privatising parts of the health service, although critics said it wasn’t clear whether it would definitely have that effect. Labour pointed out private contracts could still be drawn up if desired.