Cancer: Older People

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Tuesday 19th November 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I give my sincere condolences to the noble Baroness and her family. Yes, I will raise that. It is a good point to look at, and I thank her.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, what plans do the Government have, if any, to include older people in routine screening programmes, particularly given all the statistics that we have heard in the course of this Question and others? I have asked this question before. I have never heard an answer that I found entirely convincing. I am confident my noble friend will be able to help on this occasion.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for her confidence, and I will do my best. Decisions on screening, including the age ranges at which they operate, are made by the UK National Screening Committee. They have an upper and a lower age limit, which are based on evidence and kept under review. Current evidence does not support making changes to these ages. For breast screening, for example, self-referral is available for those over the age of 71 and for bowel screening it is available for those over 75. I confirm to her that this is all evidence-based, and we always keep an eye on the continuing evidence.

Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Monday 20th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, the Minister has twice mentioned the bowel cancer screening programme, which I think is universally accepted to be very successful, and is also very reassuring to those people who are part of it, whatever the outcome of the tests. He will also know that that screening programme and others drop people once they reach a certain age, which coincidentally is the age at which they become more likely to develop the cancers that the screening programme is intended to detect. Do the Government have any plans to increase the age up to which people can be routinely included in bowel cancer screening and other screening programmes?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

The noble Baroness makes an important point. In this and other areas, we are guided by the science; we have been guided by the science on the advice to date. I will go back and ask for the latest thinking on that, and get back in detail in writing to the noble Baroness, but, generally, being guided by the science will be the approach.

Immunisation: Children

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Wednesday 8th May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, on the Wakefield effect, as the Minister called it, he will remember that the impact it had on a lot of people was very profound. In particular, some of that was associated with incidence of autism, which again was completely unjustified. Can he tell the House whether any work has been done, in the interests of public information, on what happened to the children who were not vaccinated at that time, and what the outcomes were for them? As a deterrent, it might be useful for people to know what the worst that can happen is if you do not get your children vaccinated.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

The noble Baroness is quite right. I had two young sons at around that time, and it was a concern. Of course, we did go ahead, but it was a consideration. It is an excellent question. I have not seen the study of those various cohort groups but I will go back, because it is something we need to bring out.

NHS App: Medical Records

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Tuesday 19th December 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Patient records is what the federated data platform is very good at, in terms of drawing data and information from all sorts of sources into one place, so it is always in the ownership of the person, the GP or the individual place. You can make your data available to the private care providers, if you are having an operation with them, for instance, but the data always remains within the NHS and in the ownership of the person.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, following the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Bull, is the Minister confident, in all the talk about advances in technology, that data-sharing within the NHS is fit for purpose? We frequently encounter an apparent disconnect between different departments in the NHS, or different levels of care, where information which should be available to everybody is palpably not or, if it is, it is not being taken any notice of.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

The noble Baroness is absolutely correct. While I think everybody would say that 90% digitisation is pretty good—it is not 100%, but it is pretty good—always making sure people are talking to each other is often the issue. I am sure we have all had examples of that. That is what the federated data platform helps to do, in terms of drawing it all in. For example, Chelsea and Westminster has put what was on 10 different spreadsheets and records into one place. We are getting a lot better at that, but is it perfect and seamless? No, there is still some work to be done.

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

My noble friend is absolutely right: young people—15 to 24 year-olds—represent one of the highest levels of this. In 2020 we made relationships, sex and health education classes available compulsorily in schools. We are currently reviewing that to see the effectiveness of it, with a view to expanding it further.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, can the Minister tell the House what the current rate of take- up is for vaccination against HPV—human papillomavirus —and what efforts are being made to make sure that all those who should be vaccinated are?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I will need to come back with the exact figure for the vaccination rate. I know that it is proving quite effective, which is important. On the measures we are taking, we are investing £25 million in women’s health hubs precisely to enable these sorts of vaccination programmes. I will happily follow up in writing with the detail.

Paediatric Care: Wating Times

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Monday 16th October 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Unfortunately, industrial action is impacting on waiting times; we estimate that about a million appointments have been lost to date. Clearly, that is a matter of regret and not good news for anyone.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, I take the Minister back to the question from the noble Lord, Lord Allan, who referred to the necessity for parents to do a lot of running around and following up for themselves. Does he agree that this is a particular problem with the management of long-term conditions in young people—for example, ADHD and other things relating to autism—where the challenge is not just to get the diagnosis but to then get a consistent level of treatment over the long term? Can he comment on what steps have been taken to improve that? Can he also comment on the reported limited availability of appropriate drugs for treating young people with ADHD?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I am aware from personal experience that, when you have a child with neurodiversity or developmental needs, it is a long journey. We are seeing this manifest itself much more in recent years; I was talking to Minister Caulfield about this just this morning. One-to-one is always preferable but, where capacity is constrained, group education and help can sometimes lend themselves to this space. It is a long-term condition, and clearly it will not be solved by treatment over a few months but needs many years.

NHS: Staff Numbers

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Tuesday 12th September 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

In every area, anaesthetists being a very good example, we need to be looking at where the bottlenecks are and moving to free up those situations. I think we would all agree that with practitioners such as anaesthetists and in other areas, it is a very sensible approach to make sure that the most highly skilled are focused on the most highly skilled jobs and that they can have people underneath them who can be trained to work within that. So hearing that there is a certain amount of opposition from certain colleges and the BMA to those sorts of roles is quite disappointing. I hope they would accept that this is a key way of addressing the issue.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, can I take the Minister back to the original Question from my noble friend Lord Clark? He put before the House some quite startling statistics about the number of medical staff—particularly but not exclusively doctors —who are leaving following or shortly after the completion of their training, either for other countries or for private practice? What view does he take of that drain away from the National Health Service and the effective loss of the investment that the country makes in the very expensive training of clinicians?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

My first point on that is to ask what the real facts are. Five years on from qualification, around 95% of doctors are still registered with the General Medical Council and still practising in the UK. So the fact is that retention is very high. That notwithstanding, we want to do everything that we can to retain people, and professional development is what the long-term workforce plan is all about. Also, we all know that pensions were a big reason for a lot of the brain drain and doctors leaving the profession, and that was something we were quite radical in supporting and changing. We are going through this bit by bit, asking what key things we need to do to retain our staff and resolve this.

Ultra-processed Food

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Tuesday 18th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

On any advisory body you clearly want to get experts in the field. Necessarily, they will often be experts from companies as well. It is vital that they abide by the principles of conduct in public life and make sure they declare any conflicts. As such, we are content that we have a proper expert panel.

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, may I take the Minister back to the question from my noble friend Lord Brooke, who asked about the content of school meals? The Minister replied that school meals are a good thing and more people should have them, with which I do not suppose anybody would want to disagree. However, I did not hear him say in what way the Government are ensuring that the content of those school meals is appropriate and free from salt, sugar and fat in the way that my noble friend Lord Brooke was asking for.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

My understanding is that those guidelines are there; it is absolutely the right question. The Department for Education, working with the Department of Health, makes sure that a nutritionally balanced diet is there. There is also a joint DfE/DHSE programme in respect of nursery milk and fresh fruit and vegetables for young children, to give them a good start in life.

NHS Long-term Workforce Plan

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Tuesday 4th July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I would like to think, as I mentioned before, that increasing the supply and training of the whole medical profession would help the whole sector. This is quite close to my heart; as I have mentioned before, my mum became a nurse later on in life and went through an apprentice-type route, for want of a better phrase. Having different entry points is a very positive thing. I sincerely hope that people going into a social care environment will see that as a building block to onward career progression and that it will set them up to take further qualifications later on in life, if they wish, in the nursing profession. We are looking to expand the whole sector, and the general belief is that that will benefit both social care and the NHS.

[The Deputy Speaker (Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall) (Lab)]

My Lords, the noble Baroness, Lady Brinton, is contributing remotely.

[Baroness Brinton (LD) [V]]

My Lords, while this NHS plan is welcome, can the Minister say whether this Government will undertake to commit to the plan and, crucially, to its funding and not change the number of education and training places, as happened last year and in too many previous years, causing chaos in planning for doctors, nurses and allied healthcare professionals? On hospital training places for junior doctors after they have finished their medical school courses, last year 790 medical graduates could not begin their junior doctor in-hospital training because the NHS did not have enough placements. Given that university medical school places are already capped and highly competitive, this is a complete waste of newly qualified medical graduates.

Mental Health In-patient Services: Improving Safety

Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall Excerpts

Monday 3rd July 2023 Lords Chamber

[Baroness McIntosh of Hudnall (Lab)]

My Lords, on the Minister’s last observation, I think there are a number of noble Lords here who would say that the quality of the output has not been that great from some private providers. It is just an observation.

However, the question I want to ask will take us back to the original observations by the noble Baroness, Lady Buscombe—I was also a member of the Joint Committee. The Minister gave a very brief reply to her questions about what has happened to the many recommendations, the vast amount of evidence and a great deal of hard work that went into producing that report. He even mentioned that it was going to be responded to in a “timely” manner. I think the moment for that has passed. Will the Minister have another go at explaining what has happened to the report and when there will be a response to it?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

I am afraid I do not have the timing of a response on that. Minister Caulfield is very engaged in this area. A number of things have been mentioned. I mentioned the community treatment orders, where we are very mindful of the point made earlier by the noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, about black males being eight times more likely to be given one, and the recommendation that they should be abolished altogether. Those recommendations are very much in our thinking and our knowledge base. I know that Maria Caulfield is working on them, but I am afraid I cannot give the noble Baroness an exact time yet.