Primary and Community Care

Lord O'Neill of Gatley Excerpts

Thursday 5th June 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

The noble Lord is right that it is one thing to provide a service; it is another—and so important—to make sure that it is provided appropriately and accurately. ICBs will have their own arrangements. Within that, NHS England is currently responsible for ensuring that this takes place. We will ensure that there are regular updates. If any noble Lord is aware of particular difficulties, I would be very pleased to hear about them; for example, if there is a problem with quality control.

[Lord O’Neill of Gatley (CB)]

My Lords, does the Minister agree that even deeper and wider embedding of diagnostics across the NHS, including more in community pharmacists and GP surgeries, would help in the fight against not only antimicrobial resistance but other infectious diseases? In addition, it would stimulate the venture capital business in diagnostics. All these factors together have the potential to boost NHS productivity dramatically, and would therefore help to boost the country’s growth trend.

[Baroness Merron (Lab)]

I certainly agree with the very strong points that the noble Lord has made. This is obviously a health improvement policy for patients and to support the NHS, but it is also about developing growth and the opportunity for new ways of doing things. We welcome and support innovation.