Speeches by Dixon.

“Lord O’Neill has just suggested that it could be more ambitious. That is fine. That was the question—whether we are pushing hard enough in the latest plan. I do not know whether Dr Partridge wants to comment on whether the new plan goes far enough.”

“Increasing active travel by 50% in England would result in 1.8 million fewer GP visits and 4 million fewer sick days. I therefore welcome the Government’s commitment, reiterated by the Minister, to build 300 miles of new cycle lanes and walkways. Will the Minister meet me and the Friends of Wharfedale Greenway to see h…”

“Given that that is clearly not in place for my constituent, what is the expectation on the NHS that it should be doing those things?”

“Would you say that the emphasis for public education should be much more on infection reduction than on antibiotics?”

“As hospitals’ budgets have been squeezed, has there been any concern that there has not been the appropriate level of cleaning, particularly with outsourcing? Is there any evidence of a difference between insourced and outsourced cleaning?”

“Good morning and thank you for coming. Before I get into my questions, I will declare that I worked as a civil servant in the Department of Health from 2013 to 2015, when Dame Sally Davies was the chief medical officer. All credit to her for championing both nationally and globally this very important issue at that tim…”

“That is music to certainly my ears, as someone who is from a public health background. Hopefully the Treasury is listening to your interesting comments on preventive health as an investment. Certainly, the numbers we see in the Report about the economic impact if we do not get AMR under control are quite significant. Y…”

“Great. I was going to come on to that.”

“We are about to make large investments in the new hospital programme. You would say you are more confident that the designs that are being looked at there build in sufficient safeguards in terms of reducing infection, but you are saying it is more challenging in refurb.”

“You mentioned cleanability—I do not know whether that is a word. We have received some written evidence stressing hygiene—not just personal hygiene, which we all got good at during covid, but cleaning regimes, whether specifically in healthcare settings or more generally in public areas. How much do you think it is beh…”

“Lord O’Neill, do you want to add anything?”

“That is fine. Thank you. That has been useful questioning.”

“Before I move on to human health, I want to press this point. I was very taken with what you said, Sir Chris, about the fact that some of this resistance can jump from animal to human. As we have seen in some of the diagrams, one of the pathways is via food. Having left the European Union, what are we doing to ensure t…”

“Would you like to add anything, Ms Seager, in relation to animals?”

“Yes, indeed. It speaks for itself. So there is a higher risk as we move outside and start to import food from places other than the European Union, where we can be confident of that type of biosecurity and standards, and from countries that have lower standards than the UK. In your view, that situation is likely to inc…”

“We should note that there is a risk and it is not currently being factored into some of our trade deals. I want to come back to human health and international comparisons. We have talked about animals, in which there are certain countries that are making much higher use. The league table on human use of antibiotics pro…”

“We will come on to inequalities, but I am guessing that you have given some of the answers there around underlying social determinants and better health. On the specifics of migration, is that an issue for broader biosecurity? Are there any measures that can be taken to mitigate our higher risk?”

“I am glad that you said what you said. We have an excellent primary care practice called Bevan Healthcare, which is specifically set up to provide specialised primary health and medical care both to asylum seekers in hotels and to recently arrived refugees, so that they can better help meet the needs of people coming i…”

“Does that factor in human behaviours in terms of the basics that we were talking about, such as hand hygiene, with accessibility to sinks?”

“We received evidence from the Royal College of Pathologists, and it was reiterated in our pre-panel, that there is a workforce problem here too, with a 20% shortfall in consultant medical microbiologists and a 14% shortfall in consultant virologists. Taken together with the problems that we have just talked about with …”