National Immunisation Programme
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Lord Kamall
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I will pass on that message from the noble Lord, who has consistently asked excellent questions about the modernisation behind the scenes of the NHS and of business practices, and on moving from paper to digitising. He is absolutely right and I will take his question back to the department. Moving forward, it is very important that we, and our children and our children’s children, can pick up the app and see what vaccinations we have had. It is very simple and straightforward. I have to say that, in recent years, the Government have made very significant progress on the NHS app, but there is more to do.
Lord Kamall (Con)
My Lords, my noble friend will know from previous vaccination programmes that there have been vaccine-hesitant individuals but also communities that have not always been reached. I know that there has been some learning from those previous immunisation programmes. Can my noble friend update the House on what progress has been made and what learning there has been from previous vaccination or immunisation programmes to make sure that we reach those hard-to-reach individuals and communities?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I am grateful to my noble friend, who raises an important point. As I said, the UK has the most extensive immunisation programme in the world, with our vaccine confidence and uptake rates among the highest globally. However, we still have a lot of work to do on the communication of these outstanding products. NHS England’s Vaccination Strategy was published in December 2023; it sets out how the NHS and its partners will reduce morbidity and mortality from vaccine-preventable diseases by increasing vaccination uptake and coverage. The strategy outlines plans to maximise convenience for local communities, improve confidence and tackle complacency, by making every contact with local NHS services count. We all experienced the vaccination programme during Covid-19, and the NHS has learned from that by providing services locally so that people who find it difficult to travel around London or big cities have a convenient, familiar civic centre in which to get vaccinated. We have learned from Covid, but clearly we have a lot more to do.
Health Data: Research and Analysis
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Lord Kamall
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I am sorry to say that I do not agree with the premise of the noble Baroness’s question. Improving patient outcomes through new technology or improved drugs requires the use of NHS data. Therefore, to make the best and most responsible use of the data that they hold, the NHS and social care systems need to work in partnership with a wide range of organisations, including commercial ones.
Lord Kamall (Con)
My noble friend will be aware that successive Health Ministers have tried to digitise the whole health and care system and have faced a number of difficulties. One has been that GPs and some trusts believe that the data is theirs and they do not have confidence in sharing it nationally. Furthermore, many parts of our social care system are not adequately digitised to be able to share data. What is the latest on that, and what are the Government doing to encourage more digitisation of the whole health and social care system?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My Lords, I refer to my initial Answer. The whole point of the Government’s digitisation strategy is to take it from GPs and primary care into hospitals, in trusts throughout the United Kingdom. I am aware of individual trusts or GPs that have yet to get up to speed with digital technology, but I reassure the House that this strategy will take on the areas that are yet to be digitised—but this is a very good news story and a very good strategy that will improve outcomes for all patients in the United Kingdom.
Respiratory Syncytial Virus: Immunisation Programme
Debate between Lord Evans of Rainow and Lord Kamall
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
I refer to the answer I gave just a moment ago: 7.7 million people have received their flu jabs since the start of the campaign on 11 September. I assure the noble Lord that NHS England has planned well ahead of this winter season, and I believe that we are making progress. But there may be cases where it could and should be done better.
Lord Kamall (Con)
My Lords, following up the question from the noble Baroness, Lady Armstrong, the first issue is making vaccines available, the second is letting people know that they are available, and the third is making sure that groups that have traditionally been vaccine hesitant are reached. What have we learned from previous programmes to make sure that we can reach those groups, particularly those from ethnic minorities and others, who are slow in coming forward for their vaccines?
Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)
My noble friend makes a good point. Lessons have been learned that certain communities are more hesitant. There is a case-by-case basis for communicating with community leaders for those communities, and on social media. Not everybody follows social media, so we have to look at other ways to communicate—through letters and texts, and of course including social media but also by word of mouth, ensuring that those hard-to-reach communities take up the immunisation programme.