Puberty-suppressing Hormones

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin Excerpts

Monday 16th December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I very much welcome the generous and supportive comments of the noble Baroness, Lady Fox, in respect of the Secretary of State’s Statement. I am grateful for those. I note that she finds the reference to “uncapped” scary. I presented it as the way to gather the widest amount of relevant evidence, because that is a clinical trial; that is what is so important. The reason it is being done is that there is insufficient evidence and there has not been such a trial, and we need to do one for this particular situation.

In respect of meeting charities and others, the Secretary of State has been very keen to—what I would call—reset the relationship with various groups which all have different sets of thoughts on this. I have joined him in those meetings. He has also been meeting those with lived experience. We continue to do so. We have wanted to detoxify the debate, and those meetings have helped immensely. We will continue to have that listening ear.

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)]

My Lords, I too welcome the Statement. The tone, as we have already heard, has been absolutely right. Thinking about the clinical trial, I would like to know a little more about the timing. If we are intending to run a clinical trial that is going to be looking at efficacy and safety, it will not be an easy trial to run and it is going to take some time. It would be really welcome if the Minister could keep the House informed, which she has already promised to do.

I am particularly interested in hearing the Minister’s view on the following point. It is really important to get this clinical trial on the puberty blockers going, but we also need to understand the value and the evidence supporting all the other interventions too—the psychosocial support, the psychological support, and all the other interventions—so that it is not just this clinical trial but a broad understanding of what really helps these young people. `

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend is right to raise the second point. It is a whole range of interventions, and that is certainly something that we have very much in mind for consideration, for the reasons that we have heard in the Chamber this evening and the points that my noble friend makes. In respect of timings, it is a planned pathway study and that includes a clinical trial component. It is, as I said, to build evidence. I am glad to say that it remains on track to commence recruitment early in 2025, but only after there has been ethical approval. When that is granted, that is when the final study protocol will be ready, and I know that noble Lords will have a lot of interest in that. We will be issuing further updates in early 2025, and if there are any particular questions, noble Lords are very welcome to raise them with me.

Health: Quad-demic

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin Excerpts

Tuesday 10th December 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to reduce the impact of a potential “quad-demic”, involving high prevalence of influenza, respiratory syncytial virus, COVID-19 and norovirus, following the warning of Professor Sir Stephen Powis, the NHS national medical director.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

My Lords, levels of hospital admissions due to flu and norovirus are higher, while Covid hospitalisation rates are lower and RSV hospitalisation rates are about the same as the same time last year. The impact of these infectious diseases can be reduced through our annual vaccination programmes for flu and Covid-19, as well as the new year-round vaccination programme for RSV, and by observing good hygiene measures. Some 16.6 million flu vaccinations, 9.3 million Covid-19 vaccinations and 1.2 million RSV vaccinations have been delivered so far this winter.

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)]

My Lords, I thank my noble friend the Minister for that comprehensive Answer. I have to say that “quad-demic” was a new phrase for me and so I was very keen to understand what the Minister made of the announcements from the NHS national medical director, Sir Stephen Powis. From my point of view, it is vital that we learn the lessons of the last pandemic and I know a huge amount of work is being done to understand the implications of the recommendations from Module 1 of the inquiry. But, as I understand it from Sir Stephen’s announcement, the uptake of NHS vaccine programmes is much lower than last year, so I am concerned for us to be reassured that if uptake does not improve in the run-up to Christmas, we are ready and we have learned the lessons from last time and we will not panic and start making foolish decisions about PPE acquisition, for example.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

We are absolutely committed to learning the lessons from Covid in order to build resilience. The recommendations of the independent review of procurement by Nigel Boardman have already been implemented and a Covid Counter-Fraud Commissioner has already been appointed to scrutinise contracts to learn the lessons and recover money for taxpayers. Professor Sir Stephen Powis, who I have spoken to about this, was not suggesting that there is a pandemic but more that four infectious diseases are coalescing to create a situation and that vaccination is crucial. His comments were a call to the public to get vaccinated, which I also endorse.

NHS: Breast Screening Programme

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin Excerpts

Tuesday 3rd September 2024 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what assessment they have made of the take-up of the NHS breast screening programme.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Baroness Merron) (Lab)]

Breast cancer survival rates have improved by 41% since the mid-1970s and 86% of women survive their cancer beyond five years. I pay tribute to NHS staff and to my noble friend Lady Morgan for making such a contribution to these improvements. Take-up of breast screening is just below 70%, and NHS England has developed a national uptake improvement plan, including expanding access to screening, reducing inequalities, improving IT systems and ensuring that communications are inclusive and accessible to all.

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for that very kind and generous Answer. As we know, screening uptake has been in decline for more than 10 years now. There is no NHS region that has met its 70% minimum standards since 2019-20. Importantly, uptake for women on their first invite is really worrying. Will the Minister commit to keep feet to the fire on this issue, and work closely with the department and NHS England to press down on any potential complacency because breast cancer outcomes have improved so much? Screening is a simple way to stop women dying of breast cancer, and it is not rocket science. Please can we do all we can to improve uptake?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend makes a very clear and definite point about the link between breast screening and outcomes. I certainly can give her the assurance that we will continue to seek to drive up rates of breast cancer screening. It is important to say that the reason for the take-up not improving as one might have hoped since Covid is multifactored and complex, as I am sure she understands. We all know that research shows that women are more likely to attend breast screening if it is in a unit that is easy to get to, if it is convenient, and if we can help women to get over the problems of fear of the test, awkwardness or embarrassment. I give my noble friend the assurance that the NHS is working on understanding all that, and all that will be in collaboration with charities and key stakeholders.

NHS Blood and Transplant Service: Blood Stocks

Baroness Morgan of Drefelin Excerpts

Tuesday 30th July 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The lessons-learned exercise started from day one—we are not waiting for the end of the alert. The approach that has been taken is to increase the number of appointment slots available, to launch new and innovative campaigns, and to seek to reduce the use of O-negative blood. On all these levels, there has been a tremendous response from the public and clinicians, and from all stocks. Even if we put the cyberattack to one side, it is certainly the case that collections of blood have been lower in recent months due to the impact of sporting events, bank holidays and the weather. All of these would have been manageable; it is the cyberattack that tipped the service over—by that I mean “over” to the point where it is now.

[Baroness Morgan of Drefelin (Lab)]

My Lords, I am delighted that my noble friend is looking at resilience with respect to the supply of universal O-group blood. Is she concerned that it could be indicative of the pressure that pathology services have been under for many years? If we see cyberattacks, we obviously have to be resilient to those, but we also need to be resilient in the strength of the pathology services across our NHS, so that when you have unusual happenings such as this, there is some back-up. Will she consider that when she looks at the resilience question?

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend. That is a very important point and I will consider it in our deliberations. It is worth saying on resilience that work was already in place—for example, new centres are planned to be opened in Brixton and Brighton. I make that point not just because of expanding capacity but because the location of them will widen the range of donors. We absolutely need to continue. That is why I have asked the chief executive and the chair to come back to me with their plans to make us even more resilient.