Folic Acid Fortification
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My noble friend raises an important point and he is absolutely right. The sooner we get on with the implementation of folic acid, the better.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, following on from the Question that has been asked, and the enormous welcome that there must be everywhere for the Government’s decision to implement this, have the Government undertaken a formal costing of the amount that they will be able to divert from having to provide support and care when families are devastated into other aspects of care for children with all kinds of conditions, so that this saving will not only affect those families who have avoided a tragedy but support better care for other families dealing with other devastating conditions?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
The noble Baroness raises an important point. I do not have the details of the figures that she has asked for, but I will certainly write to her on that very good point.
Whooping Cough
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
The noble Baroness raises a very powerful question. The department is working with the NHS and the UK Health Security Agency, alongside those most at risk, working to ensure that advice on vaccination in pregnancy is being offered antenatally and that information materials are available across antenatal and primary care settings, so that pregnant mothers understand the risks of whooping cough and are encouraged to come forward for the vaccine. The NHS is implementing best practice, vaccinating pregnant women opportunistically during maternal appointments wherever possible, but it is so important that those hard-to-reach communities, where English is not the first language, are communicated with appropriately. We are looking at those communities through GPs and, as my noble friend said, through midwives, so that the pregnant mums in those communities are encouraged to get vaccinated.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, antimicrobial-resistant whooping cough has been found in China, North America, South America, Europe and the Middle East. In the epidemic we are now seeing, does the department have any idea how many cases of antimicrobial-resistant whooping cough there are in the UK? Because that makes treatment almost impossible and I am really concerned, as many are, that the public do not take seriously the problem of antimicrobial resistance.
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
The noble Baroness asks a very detailed question. There is currently a conference going on specifically on that subject. I do not have the information in the pack, but that is ongoing. She is absolutely right. As I said earlier, we had 2,793 cases in England between January and March and it is rising. It is a severe outbreak and we are looking into it.
Health: Cardiac Arrest
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
To ask His Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to improve outcomes in cases of sudden cardiac arrest.
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My Lords, the treatment and prevention of cardiovascular disease are a priority for the Government. We want people to have the best chance of survival from cardiac arrest and rapid intervention is critical to improving outcomes. This is why the Government have agreed to provide funding of £1 million to design a grant scheme for the expansion of AEDs that increases the number of public access defibrillators.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, I declare that my son is a consultant cardiologist. Around 80,000 cardiac arrests happen each year out of hospital, mostly in the home. Learning from countries such as Norway and Denmark—where survival rates are more than double ours, which is below 10%—will the Government extend cardiac first aid training to primary schools, to part of the driver’s licence, to all public sector workers and to those attending jobcentres? Will defibrillators be carried on every first response police and fire vehicle, with the NHS defibrillator purchasing scheme and registration extended to public places, to greatly increase 24-hour bystander public access to a working defibrillator via 999, with those who attempt CPR signposted to support afterwards?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My Lords, I believe this is the noble Baroness’s 1,000th contribution to your Lordships’ House, so I congratulate her—that is some feat. She asked a very good, topical question. All state-funded schools are required to teach first aid as part of the mandatory relationships, sex and health education curriculum. This involves children aged over 12 being taught CPR and how to use a defibrillator.
To improve survival rates for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest cases, the NHS long-term plan sets out that a national network of community first responders and automated external defibrillators will help save up to 4,000 lives each year by 2028. NHS England are working with St John Ambulance to increase the awareness of the importance of CPR in England. Learning from other countries, as the noble Baroness said, is exactly right and it is very important that the NHS does learn from other countries to continually improve. With regard to first responder vehicles, including in the police and fire service, carrying defibrillators, it is a very good question and I will take this back to my colleagues in the Home Office.
Brain Tumours
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, do the Government have any plans for further proton beam therapy treatment centres, in addition to those in Manchester and at UCL, with consistent government and ethics research committee arrangements, so that the small research community can also benefit from cross-border working with the CUBRIC centre at Cardiff University, in which I declare an interest?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I thank the noble Baroness for her question; she shows her expertise in such matters. The UK departments for cancer research are jointly funding a network of 17 experimental cancer medical centres across the UK, plus a network for children which is dedicated to early-phase research into childhood cancers; we invested a total of £36 million between 2017 and 2022.
Community Pharmacies
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My Lords, there are more than 11,000 pharmacies in England. Some people know the true value of local pharmacies, but people do not always know just what pharmacies are able to do and how skilled pharmacists are at diagnosing minor illnesses. We want to continue to unleash the potential and make the best possible use of the skills and knowledge of community pharmacy teams to support the wider NHS. As I said earlier, from 2026 all newly graduated pharmacists will have a prescribing qualification: we are upskilling the existing workforce.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, do the Government recognise that local pharmacists may well be the people who know best of all who is seriously ill and potentially at the end of life in a particular area? They may have been involved in dispensing a just-in-case box for the family. They may know that that a patient is taking a lot of complementary therapies but, without access to the clinical record and a systematic way of feeding the information in, they become an add-on to the clinical service, rather than being able to contribute. They may also be unable to give really appropriate, targeted advice as part of the clinical team. Will the Government seriously look at ways of ensuring that community pharmacists can, with patients’ permission, access the clinical record, to really understand what is happening to these patients, who are very vulnerable and need good advice?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
The noble Baroness raises several good points there. From my personal experience of pharmacies, they do have access to those records, but unfortunately that is not across the board and there is still more to be done on that front.
HIV Transmission
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Baroness Finlay of Llandaff
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend for that question. If he knows of any specific cases, I shall certainly look into that.
Baroness Finlay of Llandaff (CB)
My Lords, the National AIDS Trust found that nearly 100,000 people in the UK received HIV care in 2019. The late Baroness Masham rightly highlighted the problem of stigma. Mental health services are disproportionately greatly required for patients with HIV, and those with advanced HIV need expert palliative care. What are the Government doing to ensure that that population get the palliative care and mental health services they need? Not everybody is living easily and well, despite the treatment regimes we have.
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I thank the noble Baroness —and the noble Lord, Lord Fowler—for making the point about stigma. We all recall what the stigma was like in the 1980s and 1990s; hopefully, the situation is much better. I hope and believe that that group receives the palliative care it rightly should. If the noble Baroness knows of any individual cases, she should get back to me.