National Health Service: Bullying

Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Wednesday 3rd July 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

I am afraid I do not recognise the characterisation set out by the noble Lord. One of the key characteristics set out by the former Secretary of State in his leadership was that the NHS should be open and not have a culture of blame, and that people should feel free to speak up, so that when mistakes are made they should be corrected.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, the NHS is the biggest employer of people from black and minority ethnic backgrounds. They face bullying and harassment from within—from co-workers—but also from members of the public and patients. There is considerable anecdotal evidence that some patients refuse to be treated by a clinician or a nurse from a minority ethnic background. What is being done to protect these workers and ensure that the NHS has a much more inclusive environment and culture?

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

The noble Baroness is quite right. Bullying faced by those in the BAME community is more significant, and data supports that. That is why the NHS is implementing the workforce race equality standard, which is a requirement for NHS commissioners and healthcare providers—including independent organisations with an NHS contract —to track and ensure that employees from BAME backgrounds have equal access to career opportunities and receive fair treatment in the workplace, and to ensure that this is properly recorded and published. This will drive through the improvements she seeks.

People with Disabilities: Reporting Abuse

Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Monday 17th June 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Hussein-Ece]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the adequacy of the support received by people with a disability when they report any form of abuse to appropriate authorities.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford) (Con)]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness for her Question. Support for people who wish to make a complaint about health services is available from the independent NHS Complaints Advocacy service. The Ask, Listen, Do programme is aimed at making giving feedback and raising concerns and complaints about education, health and social care easier for children, young people and adults with a learning disability or autism, their families and carers. We will take steps to empower independent mental health advocates to raise concerns when they know that something is not right.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

I thank the Minister for her response, but she will be aware that, according to the Crown Prosecution Service, disabled people and those with a learning disability are at a higher risk of crime, particularly hate crime and economic fraud, than the general population. They also experience unequal access to justice and safety.

The Mental Health Foundation last autumn produced a report which highlighted the underreporting of learning disability crimes and hate crime and it made some recommendations. Have the Government taken on board any of the recommendations aimed specifically at government and police; namely, to standardise police reporting systems so as to ensure that learning disability hate crimes are correctly recorded and adjustments made to support the victims when reporting an incident?

This week, the Government launched a task force to tackle economic fraud, but vulnerable people seem not to have been included in it. When will the Government establish good practice that is standardised to include and protect disabled people?

Access to Medicinal Cannabis

Debate between Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford and Baroness Hussein-Ece

Tuesday 9th April 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

I thank the noble Baroness for her comments, and I know that she is expert in this area. Proposals for an observational trial and the collection of observational data have been put forward. I think that the concern is that, at the moment, there is a lack of confidence in the data. What is needed is the highest quality clinical data because, while a large amount of observational data for medicinal cannabis is available, data at the level of randomised controlled trials is required so that there is confidence not only among clinicians to prescribe but also for the funding system to fund within the NHS. At this point, it is that level of data which needs to be gathered, and that is why the NIHR is bringing forward public funding for it and why the Government are encouraging the industry to fund such trials as you would expect in any other area of the pharmaceutical industry.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, I declare an interest in that my grandson has intractable epilepsy, so we have been through the whole process, and I have some understanding and experience of this issue. He has recently been prescribed Epidiolex after a long struggle for him to be allowed to use it. Over the past few months, we have seen some incredible benefits from it. Does the Minister accept that rather unfair barriers have been put in place as regards access to this drug for children? I have heard of other cases where the British Paediatric Neurology Association, which she has mentioned, has said that Epidiolex, which is manufactured without THC, could be used for the treatment of childhood epilepsy as long as all other treatment avenues have been explored, including brain surgery and VNS. My grandson has had this treatment, where a device is attached to the spinal cord. These are incredibly invasive, dangerous and risky procedures. Surely it would be better to allow Epidiolex to be tried out rather than insisting on other routes? One mother told me that they are insisting that her child has brain surgery first. That cannot be right.

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

I thank the noble Baroness for her comments and for setting out her personal experience. She obviously has expertise in this area which few of us in the Chamber can claim. The reason NHS England has put forward is that individual clinical expertise relating to an individual patient is of the utmost importance, even where the guidance might seem to contradict that judgment. That is why in the autumn we will be bringing forward NICE guidance that will look at the most up-to-date evidence which should, we hope, be of assistance. It is also why we are bringing forward the NICE process review in order to understand what barriers may be in place and to encourage clinically appropriate prescribing and try to assist with cases such as these.