{"id":4957,"date":"2018-11-30T15:37:56","date_gmt":"2018-11-30T15:37:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/health-secretary-matt-hancock-accused-of-breaking-ethics-rules\/"},"modified":"2018-11-30T15:37:56","modified_gmt":"2018-11-30T15:37:56","slug":"health-secretary-matt-hancock-accused-of-breaking-ethics-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/health-secretary-matt-hancock-accused-of-breaking-ethics-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Health secretary Matt Hancock accused of breaking ethics rules"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\"HealthImage copyright<\/span>
\n Getty Images<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Matt Hancock says he was unaware of the sponsorship
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Matt Hancock has been accused of breaking the ministerial code after appearing to endorse a smartphone app.<\/p>\n

Labour MP Justin Madders is demanding an investigation after the health secretary backed the use of “GP at Hand” in an Evening Standard interview.<\/p>\n

Mr Hancock – who has his own smartphone app – has spoken positively about the “GP at Hand” app in the past.<\/p>\n

But he was not aware his most recent comments would appear in a supplement sponsored by the app’s owner.<\/p>\n

An Evening Standard spokesman said: “It is not normal practice for us to discuss branding or presentation of articles with interviewees so Mr Hancock would not have been made aware of these.”<\/p>\n

The article, the spokesman added, was not an an advertorial, meaning the newspaper had full editorial control.<\/p>\n

A Department of Health spokesman also defended the interview.<\/p>\n

Mr Hancock’s praise for the app, which is made by private healthcare company Babylon, was simply him championing the “benefits of a range of technologies which can improve patient outcomes, free up clinicians’ time and make every pound go further”, a spokesman said.<\/p>\n

But Mr Madders has argued the interview breaches rules on ministers becoming “associated with non-public organisations whose objectives may in any degree conflict with government policy”.<\/p>\n

In a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May, Mr Madders says the app, which can cost \u00a39.99 a month to use<\/a>, “subverts the objective and principles” of the NHS being free at the point of service – a government policy.<\/p>\n

He also says any endorsement of the product appears to breach rules preventing ministers “offering support” to companies which are in any way reliant on government funding.<\/p>\n

And he asks for an investigation into whether Mr Hancock received “any form of gift, hospitality or payment for being interviewed”.<\/p>\n

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Image copyright<\/span>
\n Babylon Healthcare Services<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n The smartphone service is owned by Babylon
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

This is not the first time Mr Hancock has spoken about the app, as he acknowledged in the article.<\/p>\n

“I’ve become known for using this GP at Hand app,” he told the Standard<\/a>, going on to defend his support for the app and others like it. <\/p>\n

“Serving some people more efficiently allows more resources for the people who don’t want to use the technology,” he said. “We should embrace technology that helps patient outcomes.”<\/p>\n

He also listed the Babylon app, which includes GP at Hand, as among his favourite in a different part of the article.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Image copyright<\/span>
\n Matt Hancock<\/span><\/p>\n

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Image caption<\/span>
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\n Mr Hancock has his own smartphone app
\n <\/span>
\n <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In February, Mr Hancock, the former digital minister, became the first MP to launch his own smartphone app, when he was serving as culture secretary.<\/p>\n

The “Matt Hancock” app is aimed at keeping his West Suffolk constituents updated on his activities through videos and picture galleries.<\/p>\n

First-time users are greeted with a cheery video of Mr Hancock saying: “Hi I’m Matt Hancock and welcome to my app.”<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n


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Source<\/a> by [author_name]<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Image copyright Getty Images Image caption Matt Hancock says he was unaware of the sponsorship Matt Hancock has been accused of breaking the ministerial code after appearing to endorse a smartphone app. Labour MP Justin Madders is demanding an investigation after the health secretary backed the use of “GP at Hand” in an Evening Standard … <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":4958,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4957","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.styledeals.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}