Commonwealth Fund Report: NHS Ranking

Lord Davies of Brixton Excerpts

Tuesday 14th September 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I take my noble friend’s point: there are hot spots of innovation and change in the NHS, of which we should be proud, but she is right that the NHS is a large organisation and change can be challenging. In particular, I pay tribute to the Office for Life Sciences, the Accelerated Access Collaborative and NHSX—three organisations within the NHS that are driving change. I also pay tribute to the People Plan, which is putting innovation at the centre of the culture within the NHS. I agree with my noble friend that more can be done in this area.

[Lord Davies of Brixton (Lab)]

The report says little about the important area of services for mental health, because of a shortage of comparative data. However, a new measure has been introduced into this report for the first time, dealing with access to counselling and treatment for mental health issues. Is the Minister concerned that the data in the report shows that the UK lags behind the comparators in this important area of mental health?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I have not studied the report’s comments on mental health but, in the broad terms in which the noble Lord describes the issue, I agree. We are very committed to improving access to mental health in this country—we have invested in it, but there is more to be done. It is an area of our health system that requires more investment, which is why we have committed more money to it.