NHS: Allocation of Financial Resources

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Thursday 11th May 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what financial resources are being allocated for (1) additional beds, (2) extra ambulances, and (3) the recruitment and training of extra NHS staff.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Markham) (Con)]

The delivery plan for recovering urgent and emergency care services sets out how we will provide 5,000 additional permanent beds, backed by £1 billion of dedicated funding to support capacity. We are also providing ambulance services with £200 million of additional funding in 2023-24 to grow capacity and improve response times, alongside delivering 800 new ambulances. We are committed to publishing a long-term workforce plan for the NHS, which will be published shortly.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD)]

My Lords, over the years, we have had many promises for the NHS. I wonder how the 40 new hospitals are getting on. We were also promised £350 million a week if we came out of Europe. The present Prime Minister made promises earlier this year; are they any more sound? Are there 5,000 more hospital beds, 800 extra ambulances and thousands of staff? Given the conflict over nurses’ pay and other NHS pay and conditions, we are suspicious. I ask the Minister for a full, detailed Statement on the funding and progress of all these pledges.

[Lord Markham (Con)]

We have been giving a lot of Statements. Just this week, I was telling the House about the primary care plan; we announced the social care plan earlier in April; and we had the emergency recovery plan and the elective recovery plan. The plans are in place, and they are starting to show improvements, which will continue.

Diphtheria

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Tuesday 18th April 2023 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

To ask His Majesty’s Government what plans they have to provide medical support to prevent the spread of diphtheria in the light of reports of a sharp increase in cases linked to Channel migration.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Markham) (Con)]

In response to an increase in cases of diphtheria in November 2022, the UK Health Security Agency issued guidance recommending that new arrivals into initial accommodation sites be offered a diphtheria-containing vaccine and a course of antibiotics in addition to wider health protection interventions. The UK Health Security Agency is working with the Home Office, NHS England and local NHS teams to ensure that this ongoing intervention is delivered.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD)]

I thank the Minister for those words. It is amazing that the Home Office has rejected the support and experience offered by the Association of Directors of Public Health, whose president criticised

“the lack of information, co-ordination and engagement from the Home Office”.

This resulted in the situation being

“far worse than it could have been”

and

“put both asylum seekers and … hotel workers at avoidable and preventable risk”.

Why was the assistance offered by the directors of public health “rebuffed”? That is their word. Who in the Home Office took that decision, and why? Will it be immediately reversed?

[Lord Markham (Con)]

All I can say is that the Department of Health co-operates very closely with the Home Office. We have a screening programme for all migrants coming in, as I mentioned, and an 88% vaccination rate for diphtheria among them, compared with 93% of UK children. It is a very high rate indeed; that record speaks for itself.

Covid-19 Update

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Tuesday 15th June 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, the Secretary of State was there. I thought he presented the steps regulations extremely clearly and did a great job.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

Can I ask the Minister what we have learned from the treating of this pandemic to help us face the future? We have learned very clearly how much countries depend upon one another. Our first vaccines came from Belgium. Can we make sure we do not build walls, but build bridges, as we look forward to the future?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, I am extremely touched by the noble Lord’s words, and I completely endorse his meaning. It was awful last year when we saw multilateralism and global co-operation fracture and decay. We had to look to our friends and resources within our own borders to answer the pandemic. That did not work and will not work. The noble Lord is absolutely right. From a pragmatic point of view, we depend upon global supply chains for the benefit of global science. From a personal and human point of view, we depend upon the solidarity of humankind to get us through these awful moments. I completely endorse the noble Lord’s point.

Covid-19: Over-75s

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Tuesday 9th February 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

I declare a personal interest in this question. One thing that has really helped to keep elderly people informed has been broadcasts, which they have accessed through the free TV licence. I hope that the Minister will make sure that the free licence continues long after the pandemic is over.

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

My Lords, that is slightly beyond the reach of the Department of Health and Social Care, but I appreciate the noble Lord’s point.

Covid-19: Vaccine

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Tuesday 12th January 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Baroness is right that communication is key. We seek to explain the scientific basis of this vaccine, and a huge amount of effort has gone into what I call “O-level biology communications.” This is one of the reasons why acceptance rates appear to be—touch wood—as high as they are at nearly 90%. Had someone told me that number a few months ago, I would have happily settled for it. She is right, the escapology of this virus is just the same as it is under AMR. From very early analysis it would appear—and this is extremely conditional—that the recent variant is not escaping the vaccine or any of the therapeutics we have put in place. However, it is more performance enhancing. That is good news for the vaccine and bad news for the prospect of having a disease present in society and the world for some time to come.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

My Lords, this virus is unchartered hostile territory and we can but rely on the best scientific advice. Some will say that delaying the second jab might even be advantageous and others will disagree. By delaying, debating and disagreeing we are going to put many thousands of lives at risk, lives which could have been saved by having that first jab. I am not qualified to say which is the best; I wish I was. I can only in gratitude accept the guidance of experts and that is what I will do. In doing so, I think that hundreds or thousands of extra lives will be saved by that first jab.

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

The noble Lord alludes to a complicated dilemma that we all feel. I welcome challenge and those who query and question the basis of our policy decisions and our science. He is right: too much false information and fake news can damage trust. We have gone about the vaccine process with an approach that is as open and transparent as it can possibly be. We have sought to engage in dialogue and answer questions where there have been any. That approach has proved to be effective and it is the one we continue with.

Covid-19: Medical and Funeral Expenses

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Monday 28th September 2020 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno]

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what arrangements they are making to assist with (1) the medical, and (2) the funeral, expenses of those who have had COVID-19.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health and Social Care (Lord Bethell) (Con)]

My Lords, the circumstances of their passing and the burial of the dead has been one of the most heart-breaking aspects of the Covid epidemic. The Government have sought to soften the blow with additional payments, but nothing we do can make up for the sadness caused by this horrible disease for those who seek to mourn. As set out in the NHS constitution, access to services is based on clinical need, not on an individual’s ability to pay. To support health services through Covid, we have allocated an additional £48 billion to support this principle.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

Is it not true that the places that are in the greatest need of financial support are the poorest areas? It has been confirmed again that people living in the poorer areas of our country are twice as likely to die of this virus as those in better-off areas. I know that a basic funeral will cost perhaps £1,500 which, for ordinary people in poorer areas who are in any case struggling to make ends meet, a bill of this sort—and it can often be more than that—is totally heart-breaking, with anxiety and stress resulting from it. Do the Government have any proposals to ensure that poorer folk in particular will be able to meet their needs without having to suffer the stress that they feel at the present time?

[Lord Bethell (Con)]

It is true that there is a correlation between the mortality of this disease and poverty. That is why we have enhanced the funeral expenses payments by increasing the additional costs by £300. We are also supporting public health funerals by issuing new guidance to local authorities to support this important measure which brings a degree of quiet to those who die in poverty.

Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (Leicester) Regulations 2020

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Wednesday 29th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

This morning I spoke to some of our local councillors, who all said that the areas worst affected by the virus outbreak are the poorest ones. I therefore suggest that our battle is not just against the virus but against poverty, and we must take that seriously. We must realise that even when this lockdown comes to an end and people go back to work, about 4 million are forecast not to have any work as their jobs will have come to an end, which will just add to the poverty. We must therefore now make sure that the benefits received and help given to those who are furloughed in various parts of the country continue, to stop the desperation that people must feel when their income more or less disappears and all the other help that they get has gone. We must somehow stop poverty itself, as it increases the harshness of the virus.

We could of course look at Brexit because, yesterday or the day before, the LSE forecast that the areas worst affected by the exit from Europe will be very hard-pressed, and said that they will have difficulties on top of the virus. I therefore ask the Government—I know it is late but it is possible—to cut that poverty at a stroke, and by so doing make it easier for us to recover from the virus epidemic.

[The Deputy Speaker (Lord Faulkner of Worcester) (Lab)]

I call the noble Baroness, Lady Gardner.

Covid-19: Masks

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Thursday 11th June 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD) [V]]

We all know how indebted we are to certain centres that care for rough sleepers. But, unfortunately, some of these centres are unable to function and, shortly, folk who need help will have to go by public transport. They go a lot from the west to the east. This morning, the Whitechapel Mission served over 300 breakfasts. People travel, and they have to travel on public transport, so who is going to be responsible for giving these folk fresh, clean face masks to face the day? Is it going to be the local authority, or the Government themselves?

Queen’s Speech

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Tuesday 22nd October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD)]

My Lords, listening to the Queen’s Speech, what drew my attention was the reform of the immigration regulations and that these would include restriction of freedom of movement. I agree that we need reform of the Home Office Immigration Rules, because they are totally unfit for purpose. For instance, this year we saw Windrush remembered, and only last week heard that a lass born in Glasgow 30 years ago now faces deportation. The whole thing is agony for so many people. They are here and yet the Home Office seems to treat them very unjustly. I therefore suggest that we make a fair adjustment of the regulations so that nobody will feel that they are being used in an unfair way.

We face immigration problems that will increase as the years progress. We see that climate change in Africa could well turn many people from their homeland to look for somewhere else to survive. Warfare in places such as Syria and Afghanistan will also lead many people to leave their homeland to look for somewhere they can have a fair and peaceful existence. We, as the United Kingdom, could be the leaders in this reform of immigration thinking. So often we are the people who react, not the people who lead. We could be the people who lead on these immigration transformations. That means we would need to take the initiative; we would have to forget building walls and start building bridges. That is the only way we can become a whole human family.

I sometimes wonder how we disregard all the benefits of freedom of movement. People came here from other parts of the world, bringing new medication, new engineering and new academia. So many new things came from places other than the United Kingdom. Now we are thinking of restricting that. It will make us a country that does not meet its obligations, denies people their rights and denies itself the benefits of immigration—the benefits of new people coming here.

Last Sunday morning, I was in London—we had a special sitting on Saturday that had kept a Welshman here. On the Sunday morning, I went to the Castle Street Welsh Baptist Chapel. It was one of many Welsh churches built here over the past century as people came from Wales and worked in the shops, as schoolteachers and as dairy people.

I am told that there were 3,000 Welsh dairies in London in the 1920s and 1930s. What would have happened if the farmers and milkmen of Carmarthenshire, Cardiganshire and the Conwy Valley had decided to stay at home? I hate to think what people in London would have done for their cup of tea. We came: we brought ourselves and our abilities here to London. Imagine if the vineyard owners of France had been denied the right to come to the UK. I am a teetotaller, but I am sure others would have felt the strain of that situation.

We can lead, but we must do that in a fair way. Schoolteachers who came to London—Miss Jones, Miss Roberts, Miss Edwards and Miss Hughes—were great teachers, but if they had stayed in Wales, what would have happened to education in England? I am told that in some places, half the teachers came from Wales. We were glad you had us, but we must keep encouraging freedom of movement, not denying the future or what we have inherited from the past.

We can do it. Where there is no vision, the people perish. We must have the vision to keep freedom of movement so that the benefits of other places can be ours and our contribution, such as the parliamentary system, can be theirs. Canada had a general election yesterday. I like the result—not everybody will, but I do. It is the same format as ours. One thing they beat us on is that they have desks to bang in the chamber of their Parliament. We exported that, we exchange ideas, we are people who are free to move—and that is a benefit to us all.

Child and Adolescent Mental Health Services

Lord Roberts of Llandudno Excerpts

Wednesday 24th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness makes a very important point. There are 70 new or enhanced community eating disorder services. The intention is that they should serve over 3,300 children and young people every year.

[Lord Roberts of Llandudno (LD)]

My Lords, what consideration is being given to refugee children who come with tremendous trauma from the camps in Dunkirk and Calais? Is any consideration given to them and the threat that when they reach the age of 18, their status changes and they can face deportation? Can we not do something to relieve that anxiety?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

As I hope the noble Lord will know, refugee children have as much right to access these services as other children. I should also point out that a new mental health assessment trial is being funded by the Department for Education specifically to design mental health assessments for looked-after children of all kinds, including refugee children.