Health and Care Bill

Baroness Wheeler Excerpts

Committee stage
Friday 4th February 2022 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Walmsley (LD)]

My Lords, I certainly support these three amendments so ably introduced by the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, and the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege. The beauty of their presentations is that they not only outlined the terrible suffering that can be caused by the things we are discussing but came up with very reasonable solutions to make the situation better. That is what we always try to do in your Lordships’ House.

My noble friend Lord Storey put down Amendment 297E in this group. Because he was unable to make it today, I do not intend to speak to it. I do not think that would be appropriate in case he wishes to bring it back on Report. I think he would be happy to support all three of the other amendments, in particular Amendment 268 from the noble Lord, Lord Hunt.

I was interested to hear the noble Baroness, Lady Hodgson of Abinger, say just now that clinical negligence costs £2.26 billion per year. That is about the same as the whole budget of the Ministry of Justice and, as a result, hardly anybody can get legal aid these days. That is a very good reason why we should look carefully at the performance of NHS Resolution. There is clearly no incentive for the NHS lawyers to get things through quickly, because they are being paid anyway. The fact is that there is no equality of arms; I have said this on this subject before. It should be a principle of justice in this country that there is equality of arms, but in this case there is not—so I very much support the noble Lord, Lord Hunt.

[Baroness Wheeler (Lab)]

My Lords, this is an important group and there is little to add to the expert contributions on the amendments, which have been spoken to so comprehensively. We have always championed the need for patients’ voices to be heard and listened to in the care and treatment they receive, and are doing so in pressing for the patient voice to be properly embedded in the new structures established under the Bill.

When appalling safety incidents occur, such as those so graphically spelled out in the First Do No Harm report from the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, we need not only to ensure that there are effective systems to make sure that victims receive the care, treatment and proper financial compensation needed but to enable the NHS to acknowledge and learn from what has happened, both to prevent further harm and to promote future patient safety.

In opening this group, my noble friend Lord Hunt made a strong case for an urgent, expert-led review of the 40 year-old Vaccine Damage Payments Act in the light of major developments and growth in vaccine usage and, of course, huge gains in population health and ill-health protection as a result. But the small numbers of individuals and their families who sustain serious injury or adverse reactions to vaccines—now to the fore as a result of the highly successful Covid vaccination programme—need legislative protection and a scheme that is up to date, fit for purpose, properly resourced and based on compensation levels and criteria that fully reflect the needs of today’s victims.

I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Storey, would have made an equally strong case for the repeal of the NHS Redress Act, a slightly younger 16 year-old scheme for adverse health incidents, which is out of date and also not fit for purpose.

The noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, led an expert and informed debate in Grand Committee last December on the NHS clinical negligence scheme and its ever-escalating costs, which is reflected today in my noble friend Lord Hunt’s Amendment 268 and its call for a major review of the scheme, including consideration of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act and repealing its Section 2(4).