NHS Plan: Consultation

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Monday 2nd December 2024 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

My noble friend allows me to say—and I hope your Lordships’ House will agree with this—that our approach will of course focus on addressing the social determinants of health. The goal will be to halve the gap in healthy life expectancy between the richest and the poorest regions. We are not just going to be moving from sickness to prevention as one of our three pillars, important though that is; we are also seeking, across government, to address the root causes of health inequalities. Again, that is being highlighted as part of the consultation.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

What special efforts will be made to speak to young people, who are often very far away from the health system—those leaving care, those who have just left prison and those from very poor communities? What effort will be made to hear their voices? They are often far away from the NHS because they do not need it yet, but they will in the future.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I thank the noble Lord. Yesterday, I was at an in-person event in Folkestone, and as with all such events up and down the country, it had used systems to find a wide range of people, including young people, who, as he rightly says, are often unlinked with the health service. I emphasise our continued monitoring and our efforts to reach the groups he speaks of. So far, we know that men, those aged under 35, and black Asian and black British people have engaged least with Change NHS. We are now stepping up our efforts.

Sexually Transmitted Infections

Lord Bailey of Paddington Excerpts

Tuesday 5th December 2023 Lords Chamber

[Lord Markham (Con)]

Yes. I believe that there is a real win-win possibility here, where we can get more services through Pharmacy First—obviously, that is good for primacy care access—and give further support to pharmacies. I was having this conversation just this morning. We made contraception available through pharmacies in April 2023; we will get the results of that back shortly. Things such as sexual health and PrEP are absolutely what we are looking at.

[Lord Bailey of Paddington (Con)]

My Lords, in view of the fact that it is often the hardest-to-reach communities that suffer the greatest pain from the uplift in sexually transmitted diseases, can the Minister tell us what work the Government are doing to reach such communities, particularly the young, to educate them so that they can protect themselves?

[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.