Measles Cases

Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle Excerpts

Monday 22nd January 2024 Lords Chamber

[Lord Evans of Rainow (Con)]

The noble Lord raises a very good point. There are modern communications tools, such as TikTok, which young people use. Given the collective memory of this dreadful disease that our parents or grandparents used to talk about—how debilitating measles in the first half of the 20th century could be in ruining lives, including affecting babies’ ability to see and hear—this is a success story. We almost eradicated this disease in 2015, but the collective memory means that it is perfectly safe in some people’s eyes. There is misinformation saying that not to take this vaccination is a safe thing to do. It is not and we have to do more, including through social media, to make sure that younger people realise they should get their children vaccinated.

[Baroness Bennett of Manor Castle (GP)]

My Lords, NHS England is recommending that all our staff in GP surgeries who deal with patients with suspected and confirmed cases of measles—which, given the symptoms, means a large number of patients—should wear PPE. Is the Minister confident that there are enough supplies of PPE? Do the GPs have to bear the extra cost of that PPE or will there be support from the centre to ensure that cost is covered?