NHS: Stroke Care

Debate between Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen and Baroness Manzoor

Tuesday 5th March 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen (Con)]

My Lords, I keep hearing the word “reconfiguration” in connection with stroke services. Could my noble friend explain what this means for stroke services going forward?

[Baroness Manzoor]

I thank my noble friend for that question. Reconfiguration of stroke services is very important because there is strong evidence that consultant-led specialist treatments in large, centralised hyperacute stroke services, where geographically appropriate, save lives, improve recovery and can reduce the length of hospital stays, while saving money. Three pilots have taken place in London, Manchester and Northumbria. They have seen a 9% reduction in the length of hospital stays in Greater Manchester and a cost saving of £800 per patient in London.

NHS: Workforce Implementation Plan

Debate between Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen and Baroness Manzoor

Tuesday 5th February 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Manzoor]

My Lords, as I have said, we have already put in place significant actions to boost the supply of nurses, ranging from training more nurses to offering new routes into the profession and enhancing reward and pay packages to make nursing more attractive, improve retention and encourage those who have left to return to nursing. There are almost 13,400 more nurses on our wards since 2010. However, we are certainly not complacent.

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen (Con)]

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that it is going to be an advantage that all newly qualified nurses and midwives are going to be guaranteed a place in a hospital for the first five years, and are going to be guaranteed a place in the region where they qualified?

Care Quality Commission Review: Deaths in the NHS

Debate between Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen and Baroness Manzoor

Tuesday 13th December 2016 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Chisholm of Owlpen]

I remember the noble Baroness mentioning this once before in a debate, and I think I said then that there were absolutely no plans for this review to stop. It will certainly be carrying on. We have to ensure that all investigations for mental health patients are of a much higher quality and genuinely involve all the patients and families. We must remember that so often it is the families that know best what is wrong with the patient and how they need to be treated. It is absolutely essential that all clinicians and healthcare workers listen to what relatives or carers are saying about people with mental health or learning disabilities. They know how those people behave at home and how they need to be looked after in hospital. There has to be a joined-up approach between carers, families, clinicians, nurses and everybody who comes into contact with the patient when they go into hospital.

[Baroness Manzoor (Con)]

My Lords, changing culture is very important but culture is about having very good leadership. We need clear and greater leadership in our NHS at both clinical and management level. I am pleased to hear that the Minister has said there is going to be some emphasis in that area. With the change in culture, good data and good information systems need to be in place. I understand that there is a move within the NHS towards more locality data-sharing, rather than putting in place a national framework. Surely a national framework—an information-sharing platform—is the way forward if we are truly to understand what is happening in our NHS.