Homecare Medicines Services (Public Services Committee Report)

Lord Mott Excerpts

Thursday 2nd May 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Mott (Con)]

My Lords, it is a pleasure to take part in this debate on homecare medicine services. I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Morris of Yardley, for opening this very important debate. I also thank her for being incredibly supportive since I joined the Select Committee in January. As a new member of the Public Services Select Committee, I take this opportunity to thank noble Lords who I sit on the Committee with for such a warm and supportive welcome when I first joined. I also thank Crohn’s & Colitis UK for the briefing before today’s debate.

As we have heard, homecare medicine services could transform patient care, but currently the service is not working for the majority of patients. We often hear large numbers given in speeches, and I may use some today, but we must never forget that public services are used by people who may not have access to tech or the knowledge of how to use it and who are often living in difficult and challenging circumstances. Our focus must always be on how we improve the lives of those who rely on our public services. We should embrace change and ensure that all partnerships are explored in the pursuit of excellence. Public sector, private sector and not-for-profit collaboration will allow us to achieve excellence.

I will focus on the problems in the first part of my remarks, although I fear I may be repeating some that have featured in noble Lords’ contributions, and I will end with the positives. Homecare medicine services can transform patient care, and I have confidence in the Minister to deliver. It is a surprise that, although thousands of people depend on medicine delivered to their home, no one has any idea how often patients suffer from service failures. It is not just the Government who are unsure about how many patients are involved, but NHS England, patient groups and regulators, as has been mentioned already today. This lack of knowledge, data and information is a real concern. Without data, you cannot set KPIs or manage the service efficiently.

We have some data, but I am not sure whether it currently paints a positive picture. IT systems have been developed with no single NHS system for providers to interact with, which means, as has been mentioned by the noble Baroness, that around 6,000 prescriptions are written in the UK every single day on more than 1,000 different templates.

One provider reported that, between October and December 2020, 9,885 patients had medicines missed or delayed. We do not know how much money is spent, as has been highlighted in this debate. It could be £4.1 billion, £3.2 billion or £2.9 billion—the truth is that we simply do not know. It is important that we get that figure quickly. We cannot accept the Government always hiding behind confidentiality and contracts as reasons why we cannot see some of the data; in the end, this is taxpayers’ money, and we need to make sure that it is being spent in the correct manner. The lack of transparency is a worry, as are failures in procurement and the reluctance to enforce standards, as my noble friend highlighted in his usual way at the beginning of the debate. The report makes clear that this is a difficult market with poor infrastructure.

I mentioned earlier that public services are about people. Many people with Crohn’s and colitis rely on homecare medicine services. When it works well, homecare offers people with inflammatory bowel disease the opportunity to receive treatment in the comfort of their own home, reducing the cost of travelling back and forth to hospital and the impact of treatment on their work or education. It can also reduce pressures on NHS services by allowing people to receive their medication at home. Unfortunately, delays, cancellations and incorrect deliveries of homecare medicine services are jeopardising people’s health and causing significant stress and worry for people living with Crohn’s and colitis, for example.

A Crohn’s and Colitis UK survey in 2023 found that nearly two-thirds of people with IBD had experienced problems with homecare in the previous six months, including delays or cancellations. Those failures led to nearly half experiencing a flare, one in nine ending up in A&E and one in 20 requiring surgery. One lady living with Crohn’s disease told the organisation:

“Every month continued with missed and delayed deliveries and being unable to contact the home care company. My hospital team had to intervene every time. On top of the daily challenges that my condition presents, the stress, anxiety, and time spent making sure I got my drug became unsustainable. It was too much”—


far too much. Sadly, her story is not unique. When IBD medication is delayed or missed, there is a strong risk that it loses its effectiveness and no longer helps to manage symptoms, which can result in a flare-up. A Crohn’s or colitis flare can lead to bleeding, abdominal pain, fever, joint pain, mouth ulcers, fatigue and mental health deterioration. Careful monitoring and control of IBD is vital for people to be able to work, study, socialise, maintain relationships and live life the way that they want to. Unreliable homecare medicine services jeopardise this.

It is currently unclear exactly how many people have been harmed by homecare failures, how much money is being spent on these services and who is ultimately responsible for them. We need to make sure that homecare medicine services are monitored and governed far more effectively, as we have heard today. Perhaps the real point is that no one seems to own these key services. As noble Lords will know, when a service is an orphan, progress is limited, accountability is lacking and patients suffer.

The report is an opportunity lost—for now—but it is clear that, if we can make some changes, homecare medicine services could be transformational. Reliable homecare medicines can change patients’ lives, improve quality of care and quality of life and start to make a real difference. This would allow NHS resources to be redeployed.

I am heartened by the substantial progress that has been made since the report was launched. The NHS England review to establish the facts is fundamental to ensure that we are starting from a position of fact that will allow the transparency required, start to allow patients and providers to understand the marketplace and allow patients to have the confidence to improve their health and to start to take the pressures off the NHS.

I thank the Government for their work in this space and their commitment to take the issues raised with them by the committee seriously. Having read both the Government’s letters to the committee on this topic, it is evident to me that good progress is being made here. It is reassuring that the Government accepted a large number of the recommendations in the report and are fully engaged in productive work to return a final position on some of the others.

I note that, importantly, NHS England’s desktop exercise is now complete, and I was delighted that stakeholders, including patients, had been involved in that. I look forward to reading it once it is published. I was also heartened to read that NHS England will now move to focus on and take action in the most pressing areas of patient experience and performance, and continue to engage with key stakeholders as its work moves forward.

Lastly, I note the fact that NHS England will appoint a senior responsible owner for this work, which is incredibly good news for this sector. I look forward to hearing more details about the position and the appointment to it, and to reading the Government’s summer update to the committee on homecare medicines services. I know that my noble friend the Minister is a strong advocate of using data to drive up standards and performance. This gives me confidence that we will see the change required. I am looking forward to his response today. It is worth remembering that it is the little things that mean a lot.