Health Service Commissioner for England (Complaint Handling) Bill

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath Excerpts

Friday 13th March 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)]

My Lords, the Opposition support the Bill and we are very grateful to the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, for sponsoring it in your Lordships’ House. Obviously, it is important that investigations are completed as quickly as possible and that those who complain are kept fully informed of their complaints.

My noble friend Lady Hayter raised a very interesting question about the landscape, as she described it, of the ombudsmen. She was so right to talk about the complexity of health and social care provision. It is clear that there is a general movement towards integration of health and social care, as regards both service provision and governance—the Manchester example last week is but one example of that. It would therefore be interesting to hear what the Government think about whether we should have a more integrated approach to the role of the ombudsmen.

I also wanted to raise again with the noble Earl the report of the Morecambe Bay investigation, on which he reported to the House last week. He will know that there was criticism of the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman in that report. That was with regard to a complaint from James Titcombe, the father of Joshua, who died in 2008 as a result of an infection that was missed for almost 24 hours despite clear signs. A series of failed communications followed between the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman and the CQC, and, more significantly, within the CQC itself. That led the parliamentary ombudsman to believe that the CQC would take robust action and that a parliamentary ombudsman investigation of the complaint would add nothing significant.

I would be interested to know whether the noble Earl thinks that the ombudsman’s office has learnt lessons from what happened there, and—it is entirely within the context of the Bill—whether he is satisfied that currently and in the future there will be a much more integrated approach between the health ombudsman and the CQC, as well as, of course, in areas where you have an integrated health and care service for the local ombudsman, to take the point my noble friend raises.