National Health Service (Mandate Requirements) Regulations 2017

Debate between Viscount Bridgeman and Lord O'Shaughnessy

Wednesday 6th September 2017 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Bridgeman (Con)]

My Lords, we have a health service which is endeavouring to meet an ever-present and probably ever-growing demographic challenge. I was interested to hear the remarks of the noble Baroness, Lady Finlay, on the effect of the number of older people accessing the service, but there are many more people growing old and it is surely self-evident that there is bound to be an increase in waiting lists.

Perhaps I may leave your Lordships with two statistics. It is remarkable that last year the NHS carried out 11.6 million operations, some 1.9 million more than in 2009-10, and 61 million out-patients were seen, again 1.9 million more than in 2009-10. The health service is not perfect and there is certainly no room for complacency, but perhaps I may remind noble Lords that the 2016 GP patient survey showed that 84.6% of respondents rated their overall experience as good, while the 2016 British Social Attitudes survey showed a historical high level of satisfaction. This is a service which is endeavouring under very strict budgetary pressures to improve the lot of the nation.

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord O’Shaughnessy) (Con)]

My Lords, perhaps I may first thank all noble Lords for their contributions and indeed thank the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, for bringing about this debate and giving me a chance to defend the Government’s record on the NHS. We are very proud of our record on the NHS at a time when it is treating more people than ever before. We have protected and increased health funding, with real-terms increases every year since 2010, with more doctors, nurses, midwives and GPs working in the NHS, so people can get the care they need when they need it. This is the first Government to have got a grip on NHS spending and really prioritised those areas of the service in need of investment. We are investing in general practice, an issue that has been raised in the debate, allowing GPs to open for longer so that more people can access the services that they offer. Some 17 million patients have already benefited from evening and weekend appointments through our seven-day NHS, which is a considerable achievement. Investment in general practice will increase from £9.5 billion in 2015-16 to more than £12 billion in 2021, a 14% real -terms increase. By 2020 there will be an extra 5,000 doctors working in general practice, as well as 5,000 extra staff.

This is also a Government who have given parity of esteem to the treatment of mental health in the National Health Service. The Five Year Forward View for mental health sets out our ambitious programme for further system reform: more skilled staff, the first ever waiting time standards, and an ambitious plan for children and young people’s mental health provision is in development. We have increased mental health funding significantly since 2010 so that we can deliver the services that people deserve.

I am proud that the NHS has been found by the Commonwealth Fund for the second time in a row to be the best, safest and most affordable healthcare system of 11 countries including the US, Canada, Australia, France and Germany. This is a tremendous achievement and I join with all noble Lords in congratulating our dedicated NHS staff on the excellent service that they continue to provide for patients.

Spending is of course important. According to the OECD, in 2014, UK spending on the NHS was 9.9% of GDP, which is above the average for both the OECD and the 15 countries which were members of the EU prior to May 2004. I would also gently remind Members of the previous Labour Government that this is a higher level of spending than at any time during that Government. Of course, we are not complacent and we understand that the NHS needs to change, develop and improve in order to meet the needs of the future. The mandate to NHS England that the Secretary of State is required to publish and lay in Parliament for each financial year therefore sets out the steps that the Government expect NHS England to take to ensure that the NHS offers the safest, most compassionate and highest quality healthcare in the world. The mandate for 2017 sets ambitious objectives for the coming year with the aim of delivering real improvements in patient care and outcomes. They include improving outcomes for maternity and diabetes, reducing health inequalities, improving patient safety and quality, moving more care out of hospitals, and supporting people to live healthier lives—all while delivering a balanced budget.

In his Motion, the noble Lord, Lord Hunt, has questioned our commitment to ensuring timely access to elective NHS services by arguing that the National Health Service (Mandate Requirements) Regulations 2017 and the associated mandate to NHS England make no reference to NHS England’s obligation to deliver the 18-week standard. I do not accept that and I see no grounds for making such a claim. On the contrary, we remain committed to a waiting time standard for non-urgent referrals whereby NHS commissioners must make arrangements to ensure that not less than 92% of patients have been waiting to start treatment for fewer than 18 weeks. That standard, the standard we are discussing tonight, remains a patient right that is embedded in the NHS constitution and underpinned by legislation passed, as the noble Lord pointed out, by a Conservative and Liberal Democrat Government. We have no plans to change it. Alongside the other priorities that the Government have set out for the NHS, maintaining and improving performance against core standards continues to be a commitment.

I turn now to the legislation itself. The Health and Social Care Act 2012, which we have discussed tonight, introduced a requirement for the Secretary of State for Health to publish and lay before Parliament a mandate in each financial year. It sets out the Government’s objectives for NHS England and may specify requirements that the Government consider essential for the objectives to be met. Any requirements must also be set out in regulations. The mandate for 2017-18 has been published in full accordance with the Act, including with the requirement in the Act to consult both NHS England and Healthwatch England on it. There is no question as to its legality. The mandate for 2017-18 sets a clear expectation that NHS England will maintain and improve performance against core patient access standards, and the annual deliverable in the mandate reads as follows:

“With NHS Improvement, to meet agreed standards on A&E, ambulances, diagnostics and referral to treatment”.


I now turn to the key facts on NHS waiting times performance, as indeed the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, said I would. As noble Lords know, the NHS faces increasing demand for health services as a consequence of the ageing and growing population, together with the costs of new drugs and treatments. Let me give noble Lords some figures on how many more people are receiving care from the NHS. Some 23.4 million people went to A&E in 2016-17, 2.8 million more than in 2010. Some 1.87 million people were seen by a specialist for suspected cancer, 973,000 more than in 2010. My noble friends Lady Redfern and Lord Bridgeman have given other facts and I could go on, but I will not. However, the NHS is doing more and better for more people than ever before.

Despite the record numbers of people being seen by the NHS, the vast majority are being seen within the waiting time standards, whether for A&E, cancer treatment or non-urgent treatment. If we consider the 18-week standard, which is the subject of our debate today, the referral to treatment standard for non-urgent care is that at least 92% of people are seen by a consultant-led team within 18 weeks of referral, most commonly by a GP. I am very well aware that the NHS is not currently meeting the standard for 92% of patients to wait a maximum of 18 weeks from referral to treatment. The standard was last met in February 2016. The Secretary of State reflected this in his annual statement on NHS England for 2016-17. It has been laid before Parliament —we do not hide or resile from it. In the latest published monthly figures national performance was 90.3%, which is clearly lower than we would like.