Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Baroness Wheatcroft Excerpts

Friday 12th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Lawlor (Con)]

These things can happen, but we should have a process or an alternative mechanism. I am not going to deal with exceptional cases. My GP is still in situ, and I can see my GP when I want to; other practices could aim to do the same thing. We have very great demands on the practice in Cambridge, with many students registering.

[Baroness Wheatcroft (CB)]

Can the noble Baroness tell the Committee whether she actually listened to what the GP in our midst said about how practices work?

[Baroness Lawlor (Con)]

I thank the noble Baroness for her question, but I would like to press on. There are other GPs who want to see the same patients; they want to build up the patient relationship over time because they say it makes for better diagnosis, care and treatment for their patients. We should not put up with the worst-case scenarios simply because it does not happen or because we think a multi-doctor practice works well. It may work well in some cases, but there is no replacement for knowledge of a patient over time.

The letter gives the multidisciplinary panel an assessment of the patient’s illness and state of mind by someone who knows them. If anything raises suspicion that there has been pressure or that the patient is not in a state of mind to make the decision, the panel can investigate further. Moreover, unlike the other matters and activities in the process, the letter is not a matter of ticking boxes. The demand is for something that doctors are used to doing; to write a coherent letter about one of their patients is something that requires thought and careful concern for the individual case. It is standard practice in referring a patient to a consultant for specialist care where there are letters passed to and from. Doctors and consultants write letters.

If the Bill is to have real safeguards in the form of coherent and analytical evidence from a doctor who has known a patient over time, such amendments are needed. I ask the sponsor of the Bill to require it.