Dr Danny Chambers
MP for Winchester · Liberal Democrat · United Kingdom
“The Government invested more than £560 million in AMR programmes between 2020 and 2024, so it is reasonable that Parliament should receive an annual assessment of AMR-related deaths to ensure that that significant public investment is delivering results, represents value for money and is targeted where it can have the greatest impact.”
“Surveillance has already identified significant variations by age, deprivation and geography. Understanding where deaths are occurring, and in who, would help direct resources to the communities and services that are most affected.”
“I thank the Minister for her comments. I beg to ask leave to withdraw the motion. Clause, by leave, withdrawn. New Clause 32 Review on deaths related to antimicrobial resistant infection “Within six months of the passage of this Act, the Secretary of State must conduct and publish a review into the number of yearly deaths in the UK which…”
“This is not simply a matter of people dying from infections that could not be treated; nearly all the advances in modern medicine over the last 50, 60 or 70 years would be null and void.”
“We very much welcome the Government’s initiative to give children free bus travel throughout the summer—it is a great idea. The only problem is that in Winchester and its surrounding area, Hampshire county council keeps cutting funding for bus services.”
“I thank the Minister for her comments. We understand that the Government take this matter very seriously, but we are working on estimated numbers of deaths for something that will eventually be killing more people than covid. We really need some tangible figures, so I will press the new clause to a Division.”
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Every one of 601 lines we hold for Dr Danny Chambers, in date order, each linked to its source. Free to read, in full, without an account. Page 4 of 13.
“Combined with the changes to the pooled budgets that will affect the better care fund, we are seriously concerned that the Bill is increasingly separating the NHS and social care just at a time when the service and experts are screaming out for greater integration and collaborative working. We discussed GPs this morning. They have long-standing concerns about getting their voice heard, given their unique place in the health system. They are the front gate to the NHS and they have the most patient contact of any NHS service. Removing the duty seems to be a step in the wrong direction in that regard. Finally, the change will leave in limbo areas such as Hampshire that do not yet have a fully functional mayoral authority—our elections will be in the next couple of years.”
“We have a few concerns about the clause in general, especially about the removal of local authority and primary care representation on the ICB. Some ICBs are already stepping back from joint commissioning arrangements with social care and the health and wellbeing boards, and it is vital that social care has a seat at the table. We have talked about this extensively in many Committees and in the Chamber, but the Liberal Democrats have been emphatic that we cannot solve any of the problems in the NHS without solving social care. At any given point, our hospital in Winchester certainly has 160 people in it who are well enough or would be better cared for in the community with a social care package; instead, they are stuck in a hospital, obviously affecting flow through the whole hospital and even affecting A&E waiting times.”
“On the economics, it costs around £850 a night to keep someone in a hospital bed and a fraction of that for a social care package. This is an absolute false economy, even if we ignore patient experience and patient recovery.”
“Although there is obviously a need for local councils to ensure their constituents can get to a local hospital, it is important that we have some kind of obligation. I assume it would have been an obligation that when setting up the location of new hospital services, the ambulance services must be consulted and engaged with to get their input.”
“It is causing a huge amount of stress that they will not be able to access hospital and GP services and not be able to remain living independently in the village that they have lived in for years. One of the new hospitals in Hampshire is due to be built in south Basingstoke. Extraordinarily, the consultation on the location of the new hospital did not include consultation with the South Central ambulance service. When moving an A&E department and maternity service to another location, it seems blindingly obvious that the ambulance service should be heavily involved in deciding where a new hospital may be located, given that it is primarily responsible for ensuring that people can get there in a timely manner.”
“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Jeremy. The hon. Member for Isle of Wight East highlighted extremely well the difficulties of accessing hospital services on an island, but it can be a problem anywhere, including in rural constituencies. Winchester is about 60% rural. Since I was elected, an issue that I have had a great deal of correspondence about—even protests and petitions—has been the cancellation by Hampshire county council of bus services, particularly from rural villages such as Colden Common. People need buses for a variety of reasons—obviously to get to work and school—but the No. 1 issue concerning people is that of mainly elderly people using the bus to access hospital and GP services. They are really worried.”
“I too think the hon. Member for Lichfield gave an excellent speech on the need for clarity, but there is another factor to consider. Not only is NHS England being abolished, and ICBs are having their budgets halved, but in Hampshire and other areas we also have local government reorganisation. We are going from having district councils and county councils to unitary authorities, and a mayor will be coming in next year. This is another level of reorganisation in the delivery of healthcare and social care, so there is a huge amount of change. However, there seems to be no clarity, at any level, on how this will affect services on the ground, because there are so many moving parts coming in at once.”
“On wraparound care, we have a fantastic initiative in Winchester where Citizens Advice spends time with patients at Melbury Lodge, the in-patient unit, to help them deal with all their life admin, such as debt issues and money issues. It has been shown that those who receive that service have a shorter stay in hospital, are significantly less likely to be readmitted and are more likely to engage with social services once they have been discharged. Is the Minister willing to meet me and the team to discuss that initiative? For every £1 spent on it, £14.08 is saved in cost avoidance for the NHS.”
“Two years ago, I visited Ukraine, taking medical supplies in refurbished ambulances; we had to stop only twice to fill up with diesel, which made us realise just how close to us the frontline really is. It is deeply troubling that the Government are now reneging on their full support of Ukraine by pursuing an indefinite waiver on imports of Russian oil via third countries. I ask the Foreign Secretary to reverse course on this, and to close any loopholes putting any money into Putin’s war machine.”
“It is Independent Bookshop Week, and we are fortunate to have some fantastic independent bookshops in Winchester, including P&G Wells, which I visited recently. It is possibly the longest-running bookshop in the country—it has been running continuously for over 300 years, and Jane Austen and John Keble used it. Not only is it important for our local economy and our high street; it is an important part of our historical culture and a real community hub. What is the Secretary of State doing to ensure that independent bookshops, which provide so much to communities, can cope with energy costs and business rates?”
“Parents in Winchester are certainly going to welcome the Government taking action on this issue and the Minister clarifying that it will be tech companies that are responsible for enforcing it, rather than the onus being put on parents. To push the Minister on AI chatbots specifically, it is excellent that we are removing access to chatbots that allow sexual relations and content, but there is so much other misinformation and bad health information being given by chatbots. That includes people with eating disorders being advised to get weight-loss drugs and misogynistic attitudes not being challenged. Could the Minister comment more on that?”
“I thank the Home Secretary for her response. We have 104 different nationalities working in Winchester hospital, throughout Hampshire over one third of the workers in the social care sector are born outside the EU, and we know statistically that we are more likely to be cared for or treated by an immigrant than we are to be waiting behind one for a GP appointment. Does the Home Secretary recognise that the current visa rules for healthcare workers are driving away many of the people who are keeping our NHS and social care services running?”
“I too pay tribute to the hon. Member for Birmingham Yardley for her immense campaigning and work in this area. Can the Secretary of State be more specific on what actions will be taken to prevent women and girls becoming victims of AI-generated sexual content, because it really can ruin lives?”
“Children deserve far more than this dither and delay. The tech companies do not even deserve this three-month ultimatum. The Prime Minister should not be begging; he should be telling the big tech companies, “No to the proliferation of child sexual abuse imagery, and no to putting profit over the safety of children.””
“Thank you, Mr Speaker, for granting my hon. Friend the Member for Twickenham (Munira Wilson) this urgent question. I am very disappointed that the Minister brought petty party politics into his response, because we have consistently proposed legislation that could have been implemented months ago. I speak on behalf of parents, teachers, carers and the children themselves in asking why the Prime Minister is pleading with tech companies about this. He is the Prime Minister; he should be leading the charge on blocking child sexual abuse material on smartphones. It is absolutely baffling that we have only reached this point now. We saw earlier this year the horrifying effects of Grok and other chatbots that are able to generate and share explicit content containing women and children at the request of online users.”
“The Government’s own Veterinary Medicines Directorate is really concerned that pet flea treatments sold in supermarkets are washing pesticides into Britain’s lakes, waterways and chalk streams and killing aquatic life. Those treatments include ingredients such as fipronil and imidacloprid, which is banned from agricultural use to protect bees. Millions of pets are blanket-treated every month, whether they need it or not, and we already require professional advice before selling similar products to treat parasites in farm animals. Will the Minister commit to reclassifying these products so that they can no longer be sold off a supermarket shelf without professional advice? A chemical that is too dangerous for use in agriculture probably should not be available over a counter.”
“One form of domestic abuse is financial abuse and coercion. I have been made aware of a Child Maintenance Service case in my constituency that has been repeatedly dropped at the magistrate level because of one parent failing to attend the hearing. That means that the CMS withdraws the case, not prosecuting the parent who refuses to attend, and leaving the other one trapped and without any means of escaping the loop of financial abuse. Does the Minister agree that it is deeply troubling that a case is simply dropped, without any repercussions, if a parent does not attend the hearing?”
“Q10. The Conservatives repeatedly promised us 40 new hospitals that we knew were never going to happen, but the current Government are now promising us a new hospital in Hampshire in 20 years’ time, if it gets built at all. My constituents really rely on our A&E and maternity services, but our current hospital has a huge repair backlog and rainwater leaking into clinical areas. Will the Prime Minister please break this cycle of governing parties promising us hypothetical hospitals and simply commit to fixing our actual hospital in Winchester?”
“It is an absolute honour to serve under your chairship, Ms Jardine. I commend my hon. Friend the Member for Tiverton and Minehead (Rachel Gilmour) for securing this fantastic and timely debate. I also note the expertise of my friend the hon. Member for North Somerset (Sadik Al-Hassan). Not only did he provide some really good insights—I thought his point about the importance of a single patient record all the way from pharmacy to hospital was especially meaningful—but I love how enthusiastically he agrees with everyone else’s points.”
“However, the contract is so complicated that, despite my extensive conversations with those organisations, I do not fully understand it. The key message that comes out is that it costs pharmacists to dispense NHS medication in many cases, and that NHS medication is sometimes being subsidised by other sales in shops. I even met two pharmacists who said that their personal finances are subsidising some NHS dispensation. That is clearly not tenable in the long run.”
“We are also calling for a new, long-term, sustainable model for pharmacies and an expansion of Pharmacy First to give patients more accessible routine services so that we can free up GPs’ time. We want an exemption for pharmacies from the national insurance contributions increase so that funds can be spent on patients and vital medications. I come to my final, key point. I have spoken to many pharmacists since I was elected and before that, and I have had very long, in-depth conversations with them. I have also attended events in Parliament organised by the Royal College of Pharmacy and the National Pharmacy Association and I have discussed their issues with the NHS pharmacy contract. Given my professional background, I am used to sourcing, dispensing and prescribing drugs.”
“That point comes into focus when we consider the rise in drug costs: a 20% to 30% rise for things like paracetamol and hay fever medications, and an elevenfold rise in the cost of cancer drugs since February, while the funding provided to community pharmacies has dropped by more than 20% in real terms since 2015. That is why we are calling on the Government to invest in pharmacies in smaller towns, particularly in villages and rural areas such as mine in the Meon valley. In places such as Bishop’s Waltham and Colden Common, people need access to a community pharmacy, and not only for convenience: Conservative-run Hampshire county council has cut vital bus services to the nearest big towns, which means that people without a vehicle, especially older people, absolutely rely on local pharmacies for their medication.”
“In addition, shorter opening times mean that if a patient sees their GP later in the day, the required prescription is delayed by a day if the paperwork is not registered in time. For a patient with an urgent need for medication, that extra day can be extremely frustrating and worrying. Although we really do welcome the recent 10% increase in Government funding to community pharmacies, it is worth pointing out that that is giving with one hand and taking with the other. In the wake of rising costs for energy, staff and medicines, this funding increase was the first in 10 years, so it was sorely needed, but unfortunately, it did little to alleviate the extreme pressures heaped on community pharmacies in the Budget.”
“Pharmacies allow us to siphon off some of the pressures on GP services, but—as pharmacists have been telling me repeatedly since well before I was elected—pharmacies are currently under immense pressure. Adding to that pressure is the increase in national insurance contributions, which has saddled pharmacies and GP surgeries with additional costs. As a consequence, many local pharmacies have had to limit opening times and staff numbers. In Alresford in my constituency, the hard-working staff at Wessex Pharmacies have had to close shop on Saturday afternoons. That service will be sorely missed, particularly by those who are in full-time education or work during the week and who relied on being able to pick up their prescriptions at the weekend.”
“Yes, the good ones. There has been a general consensus that pharmacies are often overlooked as a source of care for those in the community. I have visited many pharmacies in my Winchester constituency: there is Eric, who runs Springvale pharmacy up in Kings Worthy; there is Colden Common pharmacy in Colden Common; and there is the Wellbeing pharmacy on Winchester High Street, which gives me my flu jab every year. The people there actually make having a flu jab a lot of fun; we always have a great laugh. I never thought having a vaccine would be something I would look forward to, but I love going in and seeing them. We know about the 8 am rush for GP appointments, so the fact that a high street service exists where one can drop in for advice and consultations is absolutely brilliant.”
“At the moment, we are treating people with conditions that should be treated in the community with the most expensive part of the NHS, in A&E and hospital, when they could quite possibly have avoided going there in the first place.”
“I completely agree. All businesses need predictability and stability. It appears that, week to week, pharmacists are trying to work out how to source drugs with changing prices, and there is an NHS contract that is not meeting their needs. When we talk about community healthcare and provision, it is important to remember that having good, well-run pharmacies means that people are being kept out of GP practices and that they are less likely to turn up at A&E. That is even better value for money for the NHS and, ultimately, for the taxpayer. There is no downside from a Government point of view to investing and heavily supporting community pharmacy, because the savings made upstream will be hugely significant.”
“That is another legitimate point, and it was made in my second to last words, so I thank my hon. Friend for contributing. I thank the Minister for listening to our concerns.”
“The Liberal Democrats believe that the Government must ensure a fair transition by properly funding ELMS, restoring confidence in environmental schemes, providing long-term certainty for farmers and recognising the vital role that farmers play in producing food, restoring nature and supporting rural economies. That is why we are calling for an additional investment of £1 billion in the farming budget to support that transition. We will therefore vote against the draft regulations.”
“They face uncertainty in environmental land management schemes and in the closure of the sustainable farming incentive, while facing the prospect of losing almost all remaining delinked payments in 2026 and 2027. That risks creating yet another cliff edge for the farming sector after years of Conservative mismanagement and continuing Labour uncertainty. We are also concerned that the Government continue to characterise these payments simply as “delinked subsidies” despite the fact that farmers still had to demonstrate cross-compliance with environmental standards to get the basic payment.”
“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Sir Desmond. I thank the Minister for her speech. Liberal Democrats will also support the long-term move towards a fairer farming system that rewards sustainable food production, nature recovery and climate resilience rather than relying solely on an outdated subsidy model. However, we are deeply concerned that the Government are accelerating the withdrawal of support before replacement schemes are fully available, adequately funded and trusted by farmers. We are particularly concerned that England is now the only country in the UK and Europe that does not financially support farmers in the production of food. Farmers are being asked to absorb rising costs, including increased fuel and fertiliser costs caused by war.”
“Women trying to flee domestic abuse are sometimes coerced into staying by their partner’s threatening to harm their pet, especially their dog or cat. May I pay tribute to organisations such as the Dogs Trust, which runs a dog fostering service for women while they find a new permanent home, so that they do not have to give up their pet permanently, and Trinity Winchester, which has opened new rooms for women fleeing domestic abuse, and lets them bring their pets with them? This is really needed; it breaks down another barrier that prevents women from fleeing domestic abuse.”
“We were disappointed there was not a specific mention of mental health in this year’s King’s Speech. We urge the Government to remember to put the issue at the forefront of their efforts to try to get people back into work.”
“Given that it saves so much money and that the saving is so quick, there is no question that it cannot be afforded. This is not an investment that takes five, six or seven years to pay off; the savings are seen within months. I urge the Government to look at the project. I would be keen to have a meeting with the relevant Minister—whoever the relevant Minister turns out to be—and the team who are running this project, Winchester citizens advice and the Melbury Lodge unit. It could be hugely impactful in helping many thousands of people to get back into work. That is good for the staff, the patients and the taxpayer. We were heartened that the previous King’s Speech specifically stated that mental health would be treated as seriously as physical health.”
“People who are suffering from mental health issues, especially in-patients, are more likely than average to have debt, housing issues and other life admin problems such that, when they get discharged, they are back in the same situation as when they were admitted in the first place, and their mental health can deteriorate. The initiative is fantastic. It has been proven, through published peer-reviewed papers, that the people involved have a shorter duration of stay, are less likely to be readmitted and are more likely to engage with social services once they are discharged. Ministers will find it particularly interesting that every £1 spent on the project saves the NHS £14.08 through cost avoidance. I have met the team several times. Rolling it out in every mental health unit in the country seems like an absolute no-brainer.”
“One of the main barriers to people getting back into work is poor mental health. We have very long mental health waiting lists, with a million people on them. Many of those people would rather be in work, and it is also good for their mental health to be in work. I want to highlight a initiative in Winchester that I have brought up before. It has won awards, including NHS awards. It involves Winchester citizens advice providing a person for two days a week in the local mental health unit, which is called Melbury Lodge, to help in-patients with all their life admin.”
“I was speaking to farmers in Winchester just two weeks ago, and planning is a huge issue, whether they want to put in a new slurry lagoon or repurpose a barn, with a wait of more than 18 months. The process is very opaque and there is no set timeline. It is impossible to make business decisions if no timeline is given as to when they might even be told when they will have to supply information to get the planning permission.”
“We know that 75% of new and emerging infectious diseases that could potentially cause a pandemic are of animal origin. They are often related to farming practices as well. It is impossible to improve human health, environmental health or animal health without seeing the three as completely linked and addressing them all. Moving away from animal testing but having more accurate testing, and the right licensing and regulation, to ensure that animals and humans can mutually benefit from scientific advances is not only an opportunity but the morally right thing to do.”
“We are not trying to fleece people; it is not legal, and a vet prescribing it would be struck off. That is how the law works at the moment. I am really keen that, along with the desperately needed update to the Veterinary Surgeons Act, we look at prescribing rules and licensing as a big, holistic piece of work. I am very proud that the Liberal Democrats, in coalition, managed to bring forward the work to stop the testing of household products on animals. I am very proud to be an honorary senior lecturer at Bristol University vet school in the area of One Health. For anyone who does not know, that is the recognition that human health, animal health and environmental health are all completely interlinked. There are many diseases and things like antimicrobial resistance that affect humans and animals.”
“There is currently a cascade for the prescription of drugs for animals, and sometimes pharmaceutical companies can get a retrospective licence. For example, there might be a human drug that is used in animals and is working really well. The drug company will then do the research and get a licence for that specific drug, and then no one else can use it and it becomes very expensive. We would like to look at how the Act, and the cascade for prescribing for animals, can mean that drugs that have been proven to work in humans and animals are more easily prescribed. This is a really good example that many people will have encountered: they go to the vet, who prescribes paracetamol that costs a lot of money, but then they discover that paracetamol is 16p in a shop. As vets, we are not allowed to prescribe that paracetamol for a dog.”
“Currently, that is not the case. We also have situations in which drugs pass animal tests but fail human tests and then cannot be used on the animals, even though they passed those tests. Although we want to move away from animal testing, it seems wrong that animals cannot mutually benefit, from a legal perspective, from the testing that has already been done. I hosted an event last week for the Humanimal Trust, which is calling for dual licensing. Its academics are from the vet school at the University of Surrey. I would be very keen for the Minister, if he is interested, to meet that team, because they have done a lot of work on this issue as well. We are looking at updating the Veterinary Surgeons Act 1966.”
“What I would hate to see happen—I am sure that everyone is united on this—is for us to ban animal testing and move away from it here, and for it simply to be offshored to somewhere with less regulation and even more suffering to be caused as a consequence. I also want to bring up the licensing of drugs that have already been tested. Currently, drugs are tested on animals; if they pass animal testing, they go on to humans; and if they pass human testing, they get a licence. The drugs have been proven to work in animals, yet they do not have a licence for the animals and cannot be used in them. It seems to me that if something has passed safety tests and been proven to work in animals, there should be automatic licensing, or what we call dual licensing, to ensure that the animals on which there has been testing have the benefit of the drug.”
“Life sciences are coming forward with some of the most exciting breakthroughs in medicine to help solve a whole load of diseases that we never thought could be treated, including cancers and rare diseases. They are also vital to growing the economy. As we do all we can to support the life sciences industry, both in developing new technologies and in moving away from testing on animals, can the Minister say whether any work is being done to make sure that we do not inadvertently offshore animal testing? As upsetting as it is to have animal testing in the UK, standards are higher here than anywhere else in the world.”
“I served for years on the British Veterinary Association’s policy committee, and it very much supported the reduce, refine and replace model. That was several years ago, but we are now in a very exciting time, because it feels as though we finally have the technology that means that we really could move away from animal testing in a meaningful way and very quickly. Members have talked about computer modelling, organs on a chip and AI—the way it can model protein folding, and test various treatments and pharmaceuticals without having to use animals, potentially with even more valuable results. It is a really exciting time. We as a country, and the Government, must ensure that we are supporting our life sciences industry to do that.”
“A sentient animal will experience pain, emotions, suffering and mental distress in the same way that we do. All the research that has been done has shown that animals have the same range and even depth of emotions as humans. They may get excited or scared about different things, but their lived experience is as real to them as ours is to us. Many people mentioned their pets. We have a labrador called Moose. When he hears the fridge door open, he comes flying into the kitchen in excitement, and if he is caught on the sofa when he is not meant to be there, he clearly feels guilt. As a vet, having seen a variety of animal species—horses, cattle, dogs, cats, chickens—in states of distress, injury or sickness, I know that the emotion and suffering they feel is as strong as any person’s.”
“It is an honour to serve under your chairship, Mr Stuart. I thank the hon. Member for North Ayrshire and Arran (Irene Campbell) for securing the debate and for her tireless championing of animal welfare in Parliament. This is not the first debate to be secured on animal welfare issues, and it really is making a difference. We rarely have the Gallery full, but the fact that it is today shows how many people support animal welfare and care about Herbie’s law and ending animal testing. Like other Members, I have been contacted by many constituents about this subject. I will not repeat everyone’s arguments, because they were all expressed very eloquently and put very well, but I will reiterate that an animal’s intelligence has no relation to its capacity to suffer.”
“We also need to ensure that we have a happy, resilient, passionate and excited workforce going forward. The Minister has been asked constructive questions. I ask him not to repeat the previous Government’s mistakes of talking about increasing hospital numbers and medical students, while creating a whole generation of doctors who cannot go on to serve their communities and have a fulfilling career.”
“The target is to place “up to 25% of students at participating medical schools…to local foundation training places”. How many medical schools have indicated that they want to participate? That will be fundamental to how this policy gets delivered. To reiterate what the hon. Member for Bury St Edmunds and Stowmarket said, we need to treat medical students and resident doctors like people; they are not just numbers. Working conditions are as important as pay, and to improve working conditions we need to double down on improving social care to avoid delayed discharge and corridor care. The doctors delivering treatment will feel that they are doing a better job, and will not feel under pressure as a result of being unable to deliver the care that they want and that patients deserve.”
“Certainly within the veterinary profession, socioeconomic diversity is not what it should be; it does not reflect society. A profession—whether the medical profession or another—offers a better service to society if it better reflects it. I once heard someone say that talent is everywhere, but opportunity is not. It is the job of all professions to ensure that we get the people with the talent enrolled on courses so that they can have fulfilling careers and offer much back to society. The statement is a really good first step, but it is a bit vague. The Minister writes about underserved parts of the UK seeing new medical spaces; how many will there be, and how will that be delivered? Will current medical schools increase their capacity? Will new teaching hospitals open to support it?”
“I urge the Government to ensure that any training places will filter all the way through for the rest of that person’s career. We know that the last Government not only thought it sounded good for winning votes to say that they would increase medical school placements, but said that they would build 40 new hospitals, though there was absolutely no funding—putting votes before a genuine long-term plan for the NHS. We then come up against a brick wall of reality. People working in the NHS end up suffering and the people who rely on the NHS—everyone—end up not getting the service that they voted for. The Liberal Democrats welcome the Minister’s statement about increasing training numbers, especially for people from more disadvantaged backgrounds. It is important that we look at the diversity of the professions.”