NHS: Staffing

Lord Hylton Excerpts

Wednesday 10th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

Yes, it is absolutely the case that anybody from the EU who is living and working in this country, not just in NHS and social care, before exit day—or December 2020, the end of the withdrawal period—will be able to apply for settled status. Indeed, if they have not lived here for five years, they will be able to apply for what is called pre-settlement status and then apply after five years.

[Lord Hylton (CB)]

Do the Government have evidence of a rapid turnover of psychiatrists on mental health wards? Are many posts held now by locums and is this affecting the continuity of treatment of patients and the review of their cases? How can the situation be improved?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I hope the noble Lord will forgive me: I do not know the specific details about psychiatrists. I know that we need to recruit more doctors, which is why there has been an increase in the number of medical training places. There are in fact around 12,000 more doctors in the NHS today than in 2010. We do have a challenge in mental health, which is to recruit not just doctors but nurses and other assistants to make sure that we can deal with the mental health cases that are sadly not being dealt with in a timely manner at the moment.

NHS: Food Banks

Lord Hylton Excerpts

Thursday 26th November 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

It is interesting that the use of food banks is increasing not just in England but in America, Canada, Germany and across Europe. The policy response of this Government is that we should focus on a strong economy, more jobs and the national living wage.

[Lord Hylton (CB)]

My Lords, is it not paradoxical that, seven years after the world economic crisis, more and more people in this country are needing food banks? Will the Government look much more carefully than they have done up to now into the connection between benefit sanctions and food poverty?

[Lord Prior of Brampton]

It is interesting that the previous Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change, Ed Davey, said that there was no statistical link between the Government’s benefit reforms and the provision of food banks—so I am not sure that there is that link. It is also a paradox that we have this issue with food banks at a time when obesity is one of the biggest threats to the future. It is a strange situation around the world when we have both a problem of obesity and an issue of nutrition.

Health: Multiple Sclerosis

Lord Hylton Excerpts

Wednesday 2nd February 2011 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, the noble Lord, with his extensive knowledge of neurology, is perhaps the best person in this House to inform us on this subject. He is of course right—and there is considerable comment on the fact—that, particularly as regards the new drug Tysabri that I mentioned, the uptake has been lower than was perhaps expected. Professor Sir Mike Richards’ report on the extent and causes of international variations in drug usage outlines that low use of Tysabri in the UK could be the result of caution and/or scepticism among some neurologists about the benefits of the drug, particularly as regards its side-effects. However, the precise causes of the variations are a matter of speculation.

[Lord Hylton]

Does the noble Earl know—I expect that he does—that there is a treatment which extracts the stem cells from the patient’s blood and reinjects them in crucial spots? This treatment is available in Baghdad, Beirut and Kurdistan. Will the Government make it available in this country, for the benefit of multiple sclerosis sufferers?

[Earl Howe]

My Lords, I have extensive briefing on some upcoming and promising treatments that may or may not emerge in the National Health Service, but I have to say that that is not one of them. I shall go away and ask the department to inform me.