Cannabis: Medicinal Uses

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord O'Shaughnessy

Thursday 1st November 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

I absolutely acknowledge the scale of the issue. I think that the point my noble friend was getting across was that we do not want to create the next opioid addiction crisis, and I completely concur with that position. Public Health England is conducting that review and I will write to the noble Lord with specific details of what we as a Government intend to say after it has concluded.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, I declare an interest, as my grandson has intractable epilepsy. He has just been assessed for medicinal cannabis and we very much welcome that. However, I am very concerned about the comments that this will be used as a last resort. My grandson has been subjected to many, many drugs and the side-effects from many of them have been horrific, so to say that those drugs are fine but that somehow medicinal cannabis oil is a problem is looking at this in the wrong way. I am worried about the restriction that has been put in place, and that many children who might benefit from this medicine will not be able to access it because of the very strict guidelines. Can the Minister give an assurance that each person will be looked at on a case-by-case basis?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

I absolutely acknowledge the case that the noble Baroness mentioned. She has shared it with me before and my sympathies go to her and to her family—it must be very difficult. Generally speaking, medicines in this country are licensed on the basis that they have gone through randomised control trials to make sure that they are safe and efficacious. A lot of these cannabis-based drugs have not been through that. We want to see more trials and, until we do, it is important that clinicians are able to access licensed drugs first, but with the ability to use unlicensed drugs if necessary.

NHS: Waiting Lists

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord O'Shaughnessy

Monday 26th February 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I shall write to the noble Baroness on what NHS England is doing about the specific issue. I think her real point is about morale. We know that NHS staff do an incredible job under a great deal of pressure, dealing with that rising demand. We are doing two things to try to alleviate that situation. One, which we have talked about, is increased numbers coming through training so that we can increase staffing. The other is pay. Getting rid of the pay cap and allowing for an Agenda for Change pay increase is a good way of saying thank you to those staff.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, in response to my noble friend Lady Jolly on child and adolescent mental health services, the Minister talked about reducing waiting times for young people and children to see a clinician as something to be addressed “in the near future”. He must appreciate that for children and young people, time is of the essence to get treatment before the situation becomes acute and they reach a crisis. Could he not give a more satisfactory answer on that question?

HIV Prevention Services: Public Health Funding

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord O'Shaughnessy

Thursday 30th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The data that the noble Baroness refers to on spending also shows that STI testing and treatment in general has risen year on year. There is clearly still an improvement of the picture in the amount of testing and treatment. As I pointed out, the benefit of that is that fewer people are being diagnosed, which means transmission levels are falling due not just to testing but to other factors, including good treatment and preventive work. Indeed, the number of undiagnosed people is falling as well. This is all good news.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

My Lords, despite HIV testing being free and universally available across the United Kingdom, there are very good estimates that around 13,500 people are not aware that they are carriers and have HIV. I note what the Minister just said, but surely that figure is still unacceptable and there needs to be more testing, particularly of people living on the fringes of society or those who are not registered with a GP and do not come into contact with health services. There need to be some targeted efforts to reach those people to ensure that once they are tested they receive treatment.

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I quite agree with the noble Baroness. As I said, across England about 12% or 13% of gay and bisexual men and other men who have sex with men are undiagnosed. That is clearly unacceptable and means we are still not yet meeting the UNAIDS target. I will point out a couple of the interventions happening to try to address that in addition to the ones that I have already mentioned. A new contract has been awarded by Public Health England to the national HIV prevention programme for the most at-risk populations precisely to try to reach them. Another £600,000 is being given to 12 schemes under the HIV innovation fund. By definition, the people we need to reach next are the most difficult to reach because they have not come into the system.

Mental Health and NHS Performance Update

Debate between Baroness Hussein-Ece and Lord O'Shaughnessy

Monday 9th January 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I thank my noble friend for her welcome. The global number of psychiatrists across England is increasing: I was not aware of the particular shortage in rural areas. I will certainly investigate and write to my noble friend about it. I know, from my past work in education and the example of head teachers, that the shape of the public sector workforce is now such that senior positions are weighted towards the over 55s. Although I realise that separate pension arrangements are available in the health service, now that retirement and pension ages are increasing we have a reasonable expectation that people might work longer than they did in the past. Therefore the problem described by my noble friend may not be as acute—not just in health but in other sectors as well—as she says. However, there is clearly an issue about the demography of the service and we are backing up GP recruitment with quite a big increase in extra funding for primary care over the course of this spending review period. A large part of that will go on both recruiting new staff and paying those who are in the system now.

[Baroness Hussein-Ece (LD)]

Is the Minister aware of whether GP referrals to CAMHS are now improving? Last year a number of reports highlighted the fact that in some 15 trusts up to 60% of GP referrals were not being dealt with. Only the very urgent, critical cases—those children who were self-harming or attempting suicide—were being dealt with. Has this situation improved and is there now proper access? GPs are the gateway to these services and if their referrals are not being taken seriously, these problems will mount up and we will be failing the next generation. Can the Minister give that assurance?