Jeremy Hunt responds to Little’s lesson on mental health – but is he credible?

Last Updated: November 21, 2017By Tags: , , , , , , , , , , ,

Here’s what most doctors think of Jeremy Hunt, I reckon [Image: Sean Hansford/MEN].

It is hard to give any credence at all to Jeremy Hunt’s Twitter thread on his claims about mental health care in the National Health Service.

The current debate started when the health secretary failed to respond positively after Professor Stephen Hawking challenged him to a live television debate.

The issue then was Professor Hawking’s claim that Mr Hunt cherry-picked statistics to suit his narrative – for example, with his claim that a “weekend effect” caused an increase in the number of NHS patient deaths. This claim was subsequently proved false.

So actor Ralf Little took up the baton, offering to debate Mr Hunt on television, in place of Professor Hawking, and claiming that Mr Hunt had “knowingly lied” when he said he had overseen the “biggest expansion of mental health provision in Europe”.

It seems Mr Hunt has chosen to respond to Mr Little – not by accepting the challenge, but in kind – with a lengthy Twitter thread in which he quotes statistics (selectively?) in support of his claims.

It is more than a week since Mr Little posted his own thread. Why the delay? Was Mr Hunt waiting for his aides to come up with statistics that would support him? In that case, he’ll be guilty of cherry-picking again.

Let’s have a quick reminder of Mr Hunt’s record as health secretary, with this infographic from the end of last year:


And, has he convinced anyone with his current argument?

Let’s consider what he has to say (with some tweet-specific replies thrown in – and I apologise for the repetition of some tweets; Mr Hunt has a very strange way of constructing his thread):

Notice that Mr Hunt begins by setting out the claim, then goes straight into a put-down. Ralf Little has acted in comedy, certainly – that doesn’t make him a “funny bloke” and if he chooses to tackle a serious subject then he deserves to be treated seriously. And Mr Little did not trade any insults – he made an assertion and provided factual information to support it.

An increase in staff is not necessarily an increase in doctors and nurses, though.

So, even if we take Mr Hunt’s word on the numbers, less than half these new staff are fully-qualified – and qualified in what, exactly? Mr Hunt says nothing to suggest that they are qualified medical practitioners specialising in mental health care.

Nurses in training do not equal an expansion in MH provision now – and an increase in nurse training places does not mean that candidates will step up to fill those places, especially as it now costs a considerable amount of money to train as a nurse.

https://twitter.com/wendaville/status/932719930813894657

21,000 posts? What kind of posts? And – let’s remember – plans do not always become reality.

Hang on – he states that spending went up last year, and this has delivered notable improvements in MH “in the last seven years”. How was this achieved? Time travel?

https://twitter.com/helenadurham/status/932690797081911296

Let’s consider some of the general replies to Mr Hunt’s thread:

https://twitter.com/Daniellemalaur1/status/932620529693052928

https://twitter.com/David_Hesford/status/932671407623897089

https://twitter.com/tania_linden/status/932684574823415808

So what do you think? Is Mr Hunt credible?

I would suggest that he is not.

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2 Comments

  1. damo November 21, 2017 at 1:54 pm - Reply

    i challenge jeremy hunt to come to acton west london were i live just stand with me on acton high street just for one hour and we can have a game of spot the mentaly ill ,yes jeremy it will be two hands in minnettes yes jeremy people with mental health problems who have been abandoned by you and your filthy tory government

  2. Roy Beiley November 21, 2017 at 3:19 pm - Reply

    I think Mr Littles statistics were more reliable than Mr Hunts whose figures seem to be based on 2012 data. Lots of things have changed in 5 years so it may be a case of trying to compare Apples to Pears. Hunt’s reference to Little being a funny bloke is a blatant Tory ruse to make the reader think that plebs are no nothings and that their comments are worthless compared to his. Arrogance is hardwired into people like Hunt and it rapidly comes to the fore as soon as a”bloke”, funny or not, challenges their view. Notice he never called Stephen Hawkins a “clever bloke” though.

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