Global Health

Viscount Eccles Excerpts

Monday 25th March 2013 Grand Committee

[Viscount Eccles]

My Lords, the noble Lord, Lord Crisp, is a tireless worker in the cause of global health, including, as we know on this occasion, through the development of a mix of appropriate and innovative skills in many places—here and elsewhere, but predominately in countries less fortunate than ours. He referred to the UK resource, and I want to go down a rather narrow path, talking about the UK’s capability to assist in the campaigns on tropical medicine and the contribution that we can make.

I should briefly declare my interests. I am involved with development at UCLH. I am also involved with the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and have on a number of occasions been involved with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. It is usual for us in this House to discuss malaria and parasites, of which there are many different types which can lead to all sorts of very nasty results, and, lately, neglected tropical diseases. I am slightly less certain about our debating neglected tropical diseases. As a matter of fact, if you take the total UK capability, I am not sure that much is being neglected. As we know, ever since Manson and Ross connected the mosquito to malaria and the schools in London and Liverpool were founded, we have made an important contribution to fighting tropical diseases. Indeed, the Hospital for Tropical Diseases itself was founded nearly 200 years ago.

First, I want to talk briefly about London as a centre for excellence. It could perhaps be entitled “The Bloomsbury Campus”. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine in Keppel Street and the hospital, with its beds in Gower Street and outpatients and diagnostic laboratories in Mortimer Market, off Tottenham Court Road, are a real centre. Of course, we need to add the Wellcome Foundation, which is very close by. All those institutions are within walking distance and work very closely together. In particular, if a tricky case comes into the hospital, the conversations that go on between those institutions are close and entirely relevant. The people who practise in the hospital are also teachers and lecturers at the school, so there is a close combination of skills.

They have two agendas. The first is the domestic agenda, given the amount of travel and immigration. I expect that some noble Lords will know Dr Paul Clarke, who founded a tropical disease clinic called MASTA. Paul said to me one day, “John, you know that there are people who have come into Southwark”—he lived in Southwark—“from some strange places and have brought things that I have never seen before”. That is the domestic agenda. There is the rapid diagnosis of malaria and the concentration of quite rare diseases going on in the Hospital of Tropical Diseases. There is still some leprosy in this country, and it has often been misdiagnosed, and therefore having that capability is extremely important. Also important is the service whereby all GPs in the country can go on line or ring up for rapid advice if they are faced with a patient who they think may have returned from a foreign part quite recently.

On the overseas challenge, training, study and research are enormously endorsed by the Wellcome Trust, which makes large grants every year to both the London and Liverpool schools, as do Bill and Melinda Gates. It is an extraordinary amount of money, in one sense, and a great endorsement of the contribution of the Bloomsbury campus in London. Other institutions also make a contribution. DfID, as has been mentioned, is a strong supporter of this endeavour, as, indeed, is HEFCE, because they are either connected to or counted as higher education institutions.

This proliferation of support and the institutions involved bring challenges. Several departments of government are involved, and government departments are not always brilliant at talking to each other and providing a co-ordinated response. I wonder whether there is co-ordination.

Notably, the NHS, which is under pressure, changing configuration and always under some reorganisation, does not have the same agenda as DfID or the charitable institutions. I should like reassurance that DfID fully endorses this Bloomsbury campus and its contribution to those countries overseas which need that contribution, and that it will continue to give the participants enthusiastic support. Given that several departments are involved—notably the Department of Health and the NHS, with the ever present problems that they have to face—I ask the Government to make sure that nothing slips between the cracks.

Do the Government agree that the UK’s leading position in study, research, teaching and tropical disease clinical practice can continue to be a growth point for the economy? This endeavour has grown over the years and I see no reason why it should not grow further. Enormously satisfying careers are available in this activity and there is a huge job to be done overseas. If we can continue to get international support, surely this is an opportunity—and we are looking for such opportunities wherever we can.