King’s Speech

Baroness Cumberlege Excerpts

Thursday 9th November 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Cumberlege (Con)]

My Lords, it is a great pleasure for me to follow Sarah Mullally, the right reverend Prelate the Bishop of London. She has a very interesting—I was going to say “past” but I think they call it a “back story” today. She has done a huge amount in the National Health Service. We know that she was the Chief Nursing Officer; she did so much for all of us who work in the service and especially for the patients who use it.

I want to say something about Sarah because we so often dismiss people; we just think that they are in a certain position, and that that is their life and how they run it. However, Sarah has three distinguished university doctorates and was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire for her contribution to nursing and midwifery. She was of course much admired when she was the Chief Nursing Officer in the Department of Health, where she made a great contribution to the NHS. I must say that it is a great pleasure to have you, Sarah, in this House and on these Benches, making the sort of contribution that you have made this afternoon.

I want to put forward to noble Lords an idea to correct a terrible shame and injustice. When medicines and devices do harm, redress or compensation is too often withheld. Sadly, many victims are dead before they could receive any contribution. The Government have urged people to settle their claims—they mention pharmaceutical companies in particular—in court. That is quite a cruel, unjust proposition because redress and compensation are often withheld until many of the victims are no longer alive; we have seen exactly what can happen all too clearly with the infected blood tragedy. Pharma companies have huge powers and resources to delay proceedings, which can bankrupt a charity or group, pending the settlement of ginormous legal costs. The United Kingdom is not the only country to experience harm caused by sodium valproate, vaginal mesh and Primodos—the subjects that I studied for my report, First Do No Harm. We must find a solution for people in need of redress that is delivered speedily when it is needed. Unreasonable and unnecessary delays inflict more agony for individuals, their families and their friends.

When considering the then Medicines and Medical Devices Bill, I and my team concluded, after very careful consideration, that there should be a new post in the management of the NHS: a person whom we named the Patient Safety Commissioner, because we were back thinking about the patients all the time, we wanted to ensure their safety and we thought a commissioner would have a standing that would actually make a difference. The Bill was enacted in February 2021. Dr Henrietta Hughes was appointed in June 2022, and she took up her post last September. She is a force for good, and she has already embarked on—embraced, indeed—her new role and made a difference to professionals and to patients; and after all, it is the patients we must all think about.

I and my colleagues suggested that the Patient Safety Commissioner should explore the redress options for those who have already been harmed by pelvic mesh and sodium valproate. Those were the areas I studied with my team. I understand her report is due to be launched in the new year, and I urge the Government to respond with speed, as there are still too many women who have been waiting and suffering for too long. Our report, which we entitled First Do No Harm, discovered scandals that had already happened, but a number of our recommendations were not looking at the past but looking forward. We recommended a redress agency to administer funds provided to cover future harms. This was not acceptable to the Department of Health, and I felt it was really an opportunity lost. Even the best pharmaceutical producers may, despite their clinical trials, fail to realise that a product may, especially after time, prove to be harmful. The funds I am suggesting will provide a safety net when this happens. We also suggested that no medical product should be approved for sale without a levy paid into a fund wholly independent of the Government. At the very least, it should be a condition of sale in the UK. Where Governments bear some responsibility for approving harmful products, they should contribute to the fund.

Also, there should be an expert team to assess the claims of harm that have been clearly recognised by producers and make them clear to people, especially the users. They need to know what is going on with the products they are taking, and to understand the huge impact of marketing, which is on a global basis. Is not it time to work with our neighbours in Europe and possibly worldwide to seek specialist input and views on the harms caused by these products? The fund I am suggesting would provide redress to those who are harmed by medicines and devices, without them having to go through long, drawn-out adversarial lawsuits. We saw, first-hand how litigation had failed women who had already been failed by the healthcare system. We must provide a better way for the future, particularly regarding the blood issues.

I suggest that the fund be administered independently of both government and industry to ensure that it can command the confidence of injured patients. I urge the Minister to consider this and to act with speed on the points I have made.