Patricia Hewitt

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The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt
Patricia Hewitt
Secretary of State for Health
In office May 6, 2005 – present
Preceded by	John Reid
Succeeded by	Incumbent
Constituency	Leicester West
Majority	9,070 (27.3%)
Born	2 December 1948
Political party	Labour
Website	Department of Health

Patricia Hope Hewitt (born 2 December 1948) is a British politician. She is the Labour Member of Parliament (MP) for Leicester West and is the Secretary of State for Health.

Contents 1 Background 2 Route to parliament 3 Parliamentary career 4 Secretary of State for Health 4.1 Smoking Ban 4.2 NHS never had it so good, or bad? 4.3 Greedy GPs? 4.4 Growing discontent - petition to remove Hewitt from office 4.5 Growing discontent - "She's the worst Health Secretary in the history of the NHS" 4.6 Ms Hewitt apology 5 MG Rover 6 Constituency 7 See also 8 References 9 Publications 10 External links

[edit] Background

Born in Canberra, Australia, the daughter of Sir Lenox Hewitt a leading public servant (civil servant) in the Australian Prime Minister's Office and later chairman of Qantas. She was educated at the Canberra Girls' Grammar School, and the Australian National University. She went on to study at both Newnham College, Cambridge and Nuffield College, Oxford where she was awarded two master's degrees.

Initially a Conservative - her first husband was the son of a Conservative MP - she moved to the left, becoming a committed equality activist and feminist. She has been married to William Birtles, a lawyer, since 1981 and they have a son and a daughter. She was a member of the advisory panel of the New Statesman magazine for ten years from 1980. She is a former school governor at the Kentish Town primary education. She speaks French and is a keen gardener. She complained in 2002 over sexist advertising for the Motor Show in Birmingham^[1]. In 2003 she was cleared of vote-rigging during the local council elections^[2].

In 1971 she joined Age Concern as a press and public relations officer before joining the UK's National Council for Civil Liberties (now Liberty) initially as a women's rights officer in 1973, and for nine years from 1974 as the General Secretary, enduring long-term surveillance by MI5, revealed by Cathy Massiter, a former MI5 officer, in 1985.

Of late Patricia Hewitt has been criticised as being "one of the worst Health Secretaries to ever hold the title in Britain"^[3]. This is mainly attributable to the recent Medical Training Application Service (MTAS) for appointing jobs to junior doctors. As a result it is predicted that over 13,000 junior doctors may be unemployed by August 2007. The MTAS system is currently under investigation by the Department of Health (DoH) for being highly flawed and inappropriate.

[edit] Route to parliament

Joining the Labour Party in the 1970s, she was initially a follower of Tony Benn; she publicly condemned those left-wing MPs who had abstained in the deputy leadership election of 1981, helping give Denis Healey a narrow victory. She was selected as the Labour candidate in Leicester East constituency at the 1983 General Election following the defection of the sitting Labour MP Tom Bradley to the Social Democratic Party. Bradley stood for the SDP at the election, but it was the Conservative candidate Peter Bruinvels who beat Hewitt into second place by just 933 votes.

Following her defeat in Leicester, she was appointed as the press secretary to the Leader of the Opposition Neil Kinnock. (She had sent a letter to Kinnock lobbying for the role, she sent an identical letter to Kinnock's opponent in the Labour leadership election, Roy Hattersley ^[4]). In this role she was a key player in the first stages of the modernisation of the Labour Party, and along with Lord Hollick, helped set up the Institute for Public Policy Research and was its deputy director 1989-1994. She became head of research with Andersen Consulting 1994-1997.

Hewitt was elected to the House of Commons for Leicester West at the 1997 General Election following the retirement of the veteran Labour MP Greville Janner. She was elected with a majority of 12,864 and has remained the MP there since. She made her maiden speech on July 3, 1997^[5].

[edit] Parliamentary career

In parliament she served for a year as a member of the social security select committee from 1997 before becoming a member of the government of Tony Blair in his first reshuffle in 1998 as the Economic Secretary to the Treasury. She was promoted in 1999 to become a Minister of State at the Department for Trade and Industry.

She joined the Blair Cabinet following the 2001 General Election as the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry and Minister for Women and Equality.

Hewitt is known as a reliable Blairite within the cabinet. However, she notably once broke ranks whilst live on the BBC's Question Time, expressing her concern about government plans to introduce ID cards^[6].

[edit] Secretary of State for Health

She became a member of the Privy Council in 2001 and has served as the Secretary of State for Health since the 2005 general election.

[edit] Smoking Ban

As Health Secretary, Hewitt lobbied hard for a complete ban on smoking in public places. However her predecessor, John Reid, had been in favour of limiting the Government's proposed smoking ban as much as possible and in their 2005 election manifesto, Reid had introduced only a limited pledge to ban smoking in all places where food was served. Even though he was now Secretary of State for Defence, Reid was reported to be the main opponent of her proposals. He won the argument in the Cabinet, gaining an exemption for private clubs and pubs that did not serve food ^[7]. The Cabinet proposals did not find favour with MPs however and the Government gave MPs a free vote on the issue. Patricia Hewitt voted with the rebels to defeat the Cabinet's partial ban, which was replaced by an outright ban ^[8].

[edit] NHS never had it so good, or bad?

In April 2006, Patricia Hewitt claimed that the NHS had had "its best year ever", citing waiting times for hospital treatment. However, this came as thousands of jobs were being cut across the country as a number of NHS trusts attempted to cope with budget deficits. At the Royal College of Nursing 2006 conference, Hewitt was heckled and booed by health workers. Delegates at the conference called for job cuts and bed closures to be halted, predicting that the number of posts lost could reach 13,000, and said a work to rule was possible^[9]. Contrary to Hewitt's claim that the NHS had it so good, BMA chairman Mr. James Johnson claimed 2006 was one of the worst years on record and that "2006 has been full of bleak moments for the NHS - job losses, training budgets slashed, trusts delaying operations in order to save money and hospital closures announced at the same time as new PFI developments. Added to this the government’s fixation with introducing the private sector into primary care which risks destabilising the well-respected UK system of general practice. These are the issues that have made the headlines in 2006."^[10]

[edit] Greedy GPs?

In January 2007, Patricia Hewitt criticised the pay of GPs which she alleged had increased to an average of £106,000 per annum due to the contract New Labour insisted on implementing in 2004. She tried to direct attention away from NHS deficits by pointing the finger at doctors who had done nothing more than meet the performance related targets the Government had set for them.

Her department started to brief the media that GPs had unfairly taken money out of their practices when the new contract was always intended to increase investment in practices (identical stories appeared in The Independent, The Guardian and on the BBC news website). ^[11]. This despite the fact that in 2004, Lord Warner said "The better services GPs provide, the more pay they will receive, as rewards will be directly linked with patients' experiences." ^[12].

[edit] Growing discontent - petition to remove Hewitt from office

Amid growing discontent amongst front line health workers in the NHS, a junior doctor started a 10 Downing Street petition calling upon the Prime Minister to sack Patricia Hewitt - that attracted over 3900 signatories, including a large proportion of frontline NHS staff^[13]. Many front line health workers have also lobbied against Patricia Hewitt by sending her petitions and in specifics they opposed cuts to the NHS, and privatisation which the Department of Health (led by Hewitt) are aiming to do. [1]. Furthermore a recent survey showed less than 20% of workers for the Department of Health were satisfied with the way it was managed by Hewitt. [2]

[edit] Growing discontent - "She's the worst Health Secretary in the history of the NHS"

On 17th March 2007 over 12,000 doctors marched in London to object to 'Medical Training and Application System' (MTAS) and 'Modernising Medical Careers' ^[14]. This is the largest such march in the history of the medical profession. At that march David Cameron (leader of the conservative party) stated that there are people in parliament who have described Hewitt as the "worst Health Secretary in the history of the NHS" ^[15] - this was met with rapturous applause. At a simultaneous rally in Glasgow, calls for Patricia Hewitt's resignation by Graeme Eunson of the Scottish Junior Doctors Committee provoked some of the biggest cheers of the day.

[edit] Ms Hewitt apology

On 3rd April 2007 Patricia Hewitt gave an apology on Today programme of BBC Radio 4 to junior doctors over the crisis saying that the application scheme had caused terrible anxiety for junior doctors. The change offered by the government to the scheme was not accepted by the BMA.^[16]

[edit] MG Rover

Patricia Hewitt made controversy on 15 April when the MG Rover Group collapsed. She announced live on TV that the directors of MG Rover had called in the receivers but in fact they hadn't but later on finally handed over assets to Pricewaterhousecoopers.

[edit] Constituency

Patricia Hewitt's seat of Leicster West is considered a safe Labour Seat with a majority of 9,070 votes in the 2005 General Election.

[edit] See also

• Cabinet of the United Kingdom

[edit] References

[edit] Publications

• Your Rights by Patricia Hewitt, 1973, Age Concern Books, Age Concern England, ISBN 0-904502-08-2
• Danger Women at Work: Conference Report Edited by Patricia Hewitt, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-901108-30-8
• Equality for Women: Comments on Labour's Proposals for an Anti-Discrimination Law, Edited by Patricia Hewitt, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-901108-33-2
• Step-by-Step Guide to Rights for Women by Patricia Hewitt, 1975, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-901108-49-9
• Your Rights by Patriica Hewitt, 1976, Age Concern Books, Age Concern England, ISBN 0-904502-62-7
• 'Your Rights: For Pensioners by Patricia Hewitt, 1976, Age Concern Books, Age Concern England, ISBN 0-904502-66-X
• Civil Liberties by Patricia Hewitt, 1977
• The Privacy Report by Patricia Hewitt, 1977
• Privacy: The Information Gatherers" by Patricia Hewitt, 1978, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-901108-68-5
• Your Rights at Work by Patricia Hewitt, 1978, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-901108-71-5
• Computers, Records and the Right to Privacy by Patricia Hewitt, 1979, Input Two-Nine, ISBN 0-905897-27-7
• Income Tax and Sex Discrimination: Practical Guide by Patricia Hewitt, 1979, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0-901108-84-7
• Your Rights at Work by Patricia Hewitt, 1980, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-901108-88-X
• Prevention of Terrorism Act: The Case for Repeal by Catherine Scorer and Patricia Hewitt, 1981, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-901108-94-4
• The Abuse of Power: Civil Liberties in the United Kingdom by Patricia Hewitt, 1981, Blackwell Publishers, ISBN 0-85520-380-3
• A Fair Cop: Reforming the Police Complaints Procedure by Patricia Hewitt, 1982, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0-946088-01-2
• Race Relations: A Practical Guide to the Law on Race Discrimination by Paul Gordon, John Wright, Patricia Hewitt, 1982, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0-946088-02-0
• Your Rights: For Pensioners by Patricia Hewitt, 1982, Age Concern England, ISBN 0-86242-014-8
• Your Rights at Work by Patricia Hewitt, 1983, National Council for Civil Liberties, ISBN 0-946088-06-3
• Your Rights: For Pensioners by Patricia Hewitt, 1984, Age Concern England, ISBN 0-86242-029-6
• The New Prevention of Terrorism Act: The Case for Repeal by Catherine Scorer, Sarah Spencer, Patricia Hewitt, 1985, Civil Liberties Trust, ISBN 0-946088-13-6
• Your Rights: For Pensioners by Patricia Hewitt, 1986, Age Concern England, ISBN 0-86242-047-4
• A Cleaner, Faster London: Road Pricing, Transport Policy and the Environment by Patricia Hewitt, 1989, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1-872452-00-0
• Women's Votes: The Key to Winning Edited by Patricia Hewitt and Deborah Mattinson, 1989, Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-1353-7
• Your Rights: A Guide to Money Benefits for Retired People by Patricia Hewitt, 1989, Age Concern England, ISBN 0-86242-080-6
• The Family Way: A New Approach to Policy-Making by Anna Coote, Harriet Harman, Patricia Hewitt, 1990, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1-872452-15-9
• Your Second Baby by Patricia Hewitt and Wendy Rose-Neil, 1990, HarperCollins, ISBN 0-04-440608-8
• Next Left: An Agenda for the 1990s by Tessa Blackstone, James Cornford, David Miliband and Patricia Hewitt, 1992, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1-872452-45-0
• About Time: Revolution in Work and Family Life by Patricia Hewitt, 1993, Rivers Oram Press, ISBN 1-85489-040-9
• Social Justice, Children and Families by Patricia Hewitt and Penelope Leach, 1993, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1-872452-76-0
• A British Bill of Rights by Anthony Lester, Patricia Hewitt et al, 1996, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1-86030-044-8
• The Politics of Attachment: Towards a Secure Society" by Sebastian Kraemer, preface by Patricia Hewitt, 1996, Free Association Books Ltd, ISBN 1-85343-344-6
• Defence for the 21st Century: Towards a Post Cold-War Force Structure by Malcolm Chalmer, foreword by Patricia Hewitt, 1997, Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-3040-7
• Information Age Government: Delivering the Blair Revolution by Liam Byrne, foreword by Patricia Hewitt, 1997, Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0582-8
• Pebbles in the Sand by Patricia Hewitt, 1998, Dorrance Publishing Co, ISBN 0-8059-4272-6
• Winning for Women" by Harriet Harman and Deborah Mattinson, foreword by Patricia Hewitt, 2000, Fabian Society, ISBN 0-7163-0596-8
• Unfinished Business: The New Agenda for the Workplace by Patricia Hewitt, 2004, Institute for Public Policy Research, ISBN 1-86030-259-9
• The Future of the NHS (contributed a chapter) edited by Dr Michelle Tempest, xpl Publishing, ISBN 1-85811-369-5

[edit] External links

• Patricia Hewitt official site
• 10 Downing Street - Patricia Hewitt official biography
• Guardian Unlimited Politics - Ask Aristotle: Patricia Hewitt MP
• TheyWorkForYou.com - Patricia Hewitt MP
• Hewitt guilty of sex bias

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Greville Janner	Member of Parliament for Leicester West 1997 – present	Incumbent
Political offices
Preceded by Helen Liddell	Economic Secretary to the Treasury 1998–1999	Succeeded by Melanie Johnson
Preceded by Stephen Byers	Secretary of State for Trade and Industry 2001–2005	Succeeded by Alan Johnson
Preceded by John Reid	Secretary of State for Health 2005 – present	Incumbent