Health and Care Bill

Baroness Walmsley Excerpts

Lords Hansard - Part 2 & Committee stage
Wednesday 26th January 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, I will be as brief as I can. I have a few words about some of the amendments in this wide-ranging group.

Amendment 243 would protect the title “nurse”. I know from family members that the qualification of registered nurse is always hard won, the result of very hard work. It involves rigorous basic training, often followed by further training in a specialty such as mental health nursing or surgery. The title provides a high level of trust among patients and the general population, because we know that a nurse must be registered with the Nursing and Midwifery Council, or a different responsible body for dental or veterinary nurses. There should therefore be clarity about who can use the title, and it could be sorted out very simply by the Minister—I hope he will do it.

A further anomaly, which the Minister can easily sort out in his reply, is that of the appointment of surgeons. I hope he will remove that anomaly as well.

I commend the work of my noble friend Lord Sharkey on rare diseases. I will not repeat what he said about what is needed, but I hope the Minister can give him some assurance.

I strongly support Amendment 266 on the need for a register for those who practise aesthetic non-surgical interventions. I will not repeat what my noble friend Lady Brinton and others have said about the reasons for this.

Amendment 293 requires a special register for cosmetic surgery. It is important that we have an up-to-date, comprehensive and rigorous method of assessing and registering the qualifications of surgeons safely to carry out cosmetic surgery. The question is: how is that done? I have received a briefing from the GMC, which tells me that it does not support the creation of a separate register for cosmetic surgery practitioners. Instead, the GMC believes that its proposal to move to a single GMC register that includes all doctors, anaesthesia associates and physician associates, and special annotation with work to develop relevant credentials, will provide additional assurance beyond that which could be provided by a separate additional register.

We are told that something better is coming down the track and that the forthcoming regulatory reform programme is intended to rationalise and streamline registration across all the UK healthcare regulators, and will allow the GMC to deliver an accessible, flexible and discretionary registration framework for all registrant groups. That is why the GMC believes that that will provide greater flexibility to develop and amend registration rules and improve its ability to innovate. Given the rapid development of new spheres of medicine and practices, such flexibility could be advantageous.

I understand that the GMC is now developing credentials with royal colleges and health education bodies, and that the first group of those is led by one on cosmetic surgery, plus four other disciplines. So, while I heartily agree with the intention of Amendment 293, I ask the Minister: when will the regulatory reform mentioned in the GMC briefing be completed? When will Parliament be able to see it and, in the meantime, how can we be assured that the current system gives the assurance on patient safety that is required?

I too support the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, on hospital catering and I too will resist giving my anecdote.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Kamall) (Con)]

I thank noble Lords for their contributions and for sharing their knowledge and expertise—and, in the case of hospital food, not sharing their tales of inadequate and unhealthy food. I will try to answer as many of the questions as possible but, given the experience of the noble Lord, Lord Patel, of being advised by a nurse Whip, I am keen to make sure that I do not suffer those same warnings, as it were.

On rare diseases, specifying requirements in the way proposed by the amendment would restrict the ability of the CQC to collaboratively develop its assessments of integrated care systems. However, the Government are committed to improving the lives of people living with rare diseases. The noble Lord, Lord Sharkey, rightly talked about the UK Rare Diseases Framework that we published in January 2021, which set out our key priorities for tackling rare diseases. England’s action plan will be published at the end of next month.

I have had conversations with some in the life sciences industry who are keen on the fact that we are focusing on rare diseases and extremely rare diseases, and see that as a positive. One of the things that we are trying to do across government is to make sure that we are seen as a hub for expertise in rare diseases and especially rare diseases. One of my predecessors as a Minister suffered from a rare disease. The momentum is still there in the department to make sure that we tackle the issue.

Also, the CQC, through its ICS assessment methodology, will seek to understand how system leaders are monitoring and meeting the needs of the local population, including those with rare diseases. We expect the CQC, in collaboration with system partners, to use its experience as the independent regulator of health and adult social care in England to develop an approach to those reviews. I know that noble Lords may be tired of hearing this but it is important that the legislation allows the CQC flexibility to do so.

On Amendment 240, while the Government have sympathy with the need to raise awareness, we do not consider it appropriate to put such a requirement into primary legislation. I hope I have reassured the noble Lord about our programmes and our push to raise the profile of rare diseases and extremely rare diseases. We prefer that all healthcare professional regulators require professionals to have the necessary skills and knowledge to practise safely, including awareness of rare conditions. It is the responsibility of the regulators to determine what specific role they should play in raising awareness of rare and less common conditions.

On—and I apologise if I mispronounce this—liothyronine and the power of direction, the NICE guideline on the assessment and management of thyroid disease, as the noble Lord acknowledged, does not recommend liothyronine for primary hypothyroidism. NICE states that there is not yet enough evidence that it offers benefits over levothyroxine monotherapy, and its long-term adverse effects are uncertain. If new evidence was to emerge, I am sure NICE would consider it.

In addition, we must be careful not to override NICE guidelines. But, given the concerns raised by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and my noble friend Lord Borwick, I would like a further conversation, if that is okay, to see what can be done in this area, as well as where it is appropriate for me to act and what conversations would be appropriate, given the noble Lord’s experience as a Health Minister.

On Amendment 178, we are committed to further strengthening the innovation metrics and to improving our understanding of how innovative medicines and these products are used in the NHS. Noble Lords will be aware that following the publication of the final report of the Accelerated Access Review, the Government established the Accelerated Access Collaborative—AAC—last year. In fact, last year alone we helped over 300,000 patients access proven innovations, resulting in 17,000 fewer hospital admissions and 140,000 fewer days spent in hospital.

As noble Lords are aware, we published our ambitious Life Sciences Vision, which laid out our priorities. We want to make sure that the NHS is seen as a partner in innovation and that research is embedded into everything the NHS does. I know that this has been raised in relation to other amendments. We are currently developing implementation plans for delivering on these commitments.

As noble Lords acknowledged, NICE is in the final stages of the review of its methods and processes, and is proposing a number of changes that will introduce real benefits to patients, including rare disease patients. The Government are also committed to developing an innovative medicines fund, which my noble friend referred to, and a consultation on detailed proposals for the fund closes on 11 February.

Finally, our rare disease framework outlines the key priorities for rare diseases in the UK over the next five years. One priority area is to improve access to specialist care, treatments and drugs.

On hospital food, although we recognise the expertise and declarations of the noble Lords who spoke, we believe that this amendment is unnecessary because the issues are already covered, either as part of the ongoing work to implement recommendations from the hospital food review or in the NHS food standards document, to be published in spring 2022.

The Government are supporting NHS England to implement the recommendations from the independent review. These recommendations cover a broad range of issues, including nutrition, hydration, healthier eating and sustainable procurement. It is important for me to learn more about this as a Minister, given what the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, said about many people not receiving the recognition they deserve. It would be appropriate, perhaps, for us to meet and follow this up.

In addition, the Government already have sufficient legal powers and obligations to enable them to consult on proposed food standards, and we have engaged with NHS trusts, the food standards and strategy group, and the NHS food review expert group through the NHS food review. We will continue to do all this.

On Amendment 264, the regulations already allow trusts to seek alternative members to contribute to the process. They can be from colleges such as the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Glasgow and the Royal College of Emergency Medicine. However, the Government agree that the changes proposed by noble Lords in Amendment 264 would potentially be advantageous —to put it that way—and we have undertaken to review the situation with officials.

The National Health Service Act 2006 stipulates that consultation with affected parties must be undertaken before any changes are made. Therefore, before we jump to it and agree, we are required to consult the relevant parties. It does seem a clear-cut case, but we are still under a duty to consult.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Stevens of Birmingham (CB)]

My Lords, I just wanted to respond to the last set of very important questions that have arisen. It is fair to say that the Bill increases the accountability for commissioning primary care services locally, as compared with its predecessor, the 2012 Act. That is because one consequence of having GPs represented on the clinical commissioning groups was that clinical commissioning groups could not, therefore, be the commissioners of local primary care services, at least in statute. One had the paradox that the most local of all the services in the NHS was stripped out from the local commissioning bodies, the CCGs, and instead given nationally to NHS England, as a work-around to deal with the conflict of interest that GPs would otherwise have had in commissioning themselves on the CCGs.

In practice, the CCGs have been given the ability to influence those local commissioning arrangements but, to be clear, that is not the accountability mechanism set through the 2012 Act. What this Bill does is to improve the position, in that it is local integrated care boards that have that local commissioning responsibility for GP and other family health services, as compared with NHS England nationally.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, we have been reminded many times during the debates in Committee of the aims of the Bill to improve the health and well-being of the population, to improve the quality of care and to use NHS resources sustainably through integration, co-operation and collaboration. Of course, the point at which these resources are used at the coalface, known as “place” in the Bill, is in these place-based organisations. To ensure integration at this level, we are told that the ICB must create an integrated care partnership, otherwise known as a place-based integrated care board, which probably has an acronym as well. There is, however, very little detail about those, despite their crucial importance, and these amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, are an attempt to put a bit of flesh on those bones.

I put my name to Amendment 166, but I could just as easily have put it to Amendment 165. Amendment 166 says that, within the place-based partnership, there should be mandated a provider network board with duties delegated to it by the ICB. It would be under parliamentary scrutiny and have an obligation to meet in public. These networks already exist and exert considerable influence, but it is essential that they operate in this new integrated care system under a regulated constitution, with obligations to consult and financial provisions. This amendment would ensure the transparency, for which the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, called, over how well integration is operating at this very important level so that there can be proper control and accountability and scrutiny as to where the money is being spent and whether it is achieving the duties placed on all these systems by the Bill.

[Baroness Thornton (Lab)]

I thank my noble friend for tabling these amendments; I have added my name to both of them. They are about transparency and legitimacy, raising very important questions which the Minister needs to answer.

I go back to what the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, said at Second Reading, which I think my noble friend referred to. He said that

“we have new provider collaboratives which, in fairness, is where the power in the NHS will lie. The Bill makes no provision for them in terms of transparency, openness or accountability.”—[Official Report, 7/12/21; col. 1789.]

I do not need to say any more than that. The Minister needs to answer that question, because it needs to be resolved before the Bill completes its passage.

--- Later in debate ---

[Lord Warner (CB)]

My Lords, it is a delight to follow the noble Lords, Lord Lansley and Lord Hunt, on this set of amendments, with which I totally agree. I want to dilate for a few moments on the realpolitik of being a Minister in the great, august organisation called the Department of Health and Social Care. I can say some things that the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, as a former elected Minister, possibly cannot.

When I ceased to be a Parliamentary Secretary and was promoted to work with the big boys and girls as a Minister of State, and had to deal with issues such as reconfiguration, poor performance and so forth, I became used to regularly meeting elected MPs who wanted to tell me about the errors of their ways in decisions that had been taken in the public interest. There was a steady flow of them, which, if I may say, tended to get bigger the nearer you got to an election. If people wanted to go through the archives, I would refer them to the history of Lewisham Hospital and of Chase Farm Hospital, to name but two.

Very often in these situations, it is not about closing a whole hospital but about re-engineering—we will come to some of this in the next group. I give the example of stroke services in London. It is re-engineering a particular set of services, which the local MP is then put up for trying to ensure that change does not happen. That is where you need to help Ministers do the right thing, when it is in the public interest to make changes. The amendments from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, help Ministers do the right thing.

The point the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, made is absolutely valid. In many of these circumstances, it becomes very difficult if you are an elected Minister—as distinct from an appointed Minister, who does not have to face the electorate—to resist some of the local pressures to avoid change which would be disadvantageous to a local hospital. For those realpolitik reasons, I think the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, is on the right track and we should support the amendments.

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, I support the noble Lord, Lord Lansley. Clauses 39 and 64 give the widest possible powers of intervention to the Secretary of State and even the power to delegate that power to someone else. The noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and other noble Lords clearly believe that the Government are going too far, hence the large number of amendments in this and the next group.

I believe that the Clause 39 powers could justifiably be used only in the case of some cataclysmic failure of the NHS. There are four questions to ask. Is it possible that the Secretary of State would ever need these powers of intervention at an operational level, given that he already has the mandate? Does the Secretary of State have any other powers which could be used prior to this atomic bomb of a power? Has the NHS survived well enough over the last 10 years without the Secretary of State having such powers? Does Clause 39 upset the balance between the Secretary of State and the autonomy of NHS England? I think the answers are no, yes, yes and yes—your Lordships can work it out.

The Health and Social Care Act 2012 removed the Secretary of State from this sort of meddling. I thought at the time that it might also avoid him or her taking the blame for failure, but that was just me being cynical and there has actually been no failure of political accountability over the last 10 years. The ninth report of the House of Lords Constitution Committee refers to this issue. It notes that, in 2011, it

“raised concerns that that Bill could erode ministerial responsibility due to the proposed duty on the Secretary of State to promote autonomy for persons exercising functions in relation to the health service. What is now section 5 of the Health and Social Care Act 2012 was amended, such that the Secretary of State instead must have regard to the desirability of securing autonomy. This helps ensure a balance between enabling those providing health care services to deliver services in a manner that they consider appropriate, whilst ensuring ministerial responsibility.”

The Constitution Committee believes that, in combination with Clause 64, the powers taken for the Secretary of State by Clause 39 would undermine that autonomy and upset the balance. They also risk

“undermining accountability by making it more difficult to understand which body is responsible for a particular function of the NHS.”

The fact is that the Secretary of State already has the power to change the mandate of NHS England—as the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, pointed out—to adjust its funding or to bring political pressure upon it to behave in certain ways, without the need for the powers in this clause. Indeed, I think it would be very unwise to use these powers, and he or she will certainly get the blame if it all goes pear-shaped. The Bill, as has already been pointed out in some detail by noble Lords, the DPRRC and the Constitution Committee, gives the Government considerable regulatory and guidance powers, about half of which allow no parliamentary scrutiny at all. Does that not give the Secretary of State enough ability to ensure things are done in the way the Government wish? The Secretary of State already wants to be Henry VIII; does he also want to be King Herod?