Health Bill

Baroness Grey-Thompson Excerpts

Committee stage
Tuesday 3rd November 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, I will speak briefly on this group of amendments because they have an impact on amendments that I have in other groups. I read with interest Amendment 45 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Coffey, which seeks to ensure equitable palliative care regardless of wealth or geography. I am not entirely sure whether disability would be included in this, but I am keen that disabled people are not forgotten in the Bill.

Last week I spoke to an organisation that works with wheelchair users. It was a very worrying conversation about the impact on general NHS services and specialist services from changes in spinal units and the support they give people who have had a traumatic accident, and about the lack of accessibility to a number of services that we take for granted, particularly breast cancer screening and smears. A number of disabled women have been in contact with me to say that they have been refused those basic treatments because they are disabled or because of the inaccessibility of the machines. I have had to have several mammograms over the years, and the machines are just not designed for somebody who cannot stand. Last time I had one, three nurses had to lift me up into the machine, which was not particularly easy or useful, but they managed to make it work for me. I am worried about the number of people for whom it is not made to work, who might end up in palliative care services far earlier than they need to because of the lack of treatments they are able to access. The postcode lottery is layered on top of that. I am keen that there is a real understanding of the quality of life of disabled people as part of this, to ensure that they get the right support at the right time.

It is really difficult to discuss this Bill without mentioning my recent experience of three stays in hospital since August. The first and second times, I had cellulitis. Interestingly, the papers that I took home with me when I was released the second time had my DNAR status on them. Luckily, it said “no”, but it was interesting that that was not discussed with me; I would not have expected to have that discussion, based on the condition I had, but a number of disabled people worry when their DNAR status is put on their documentation with or without a discussion.

That leads to Amendment 230 in the name of the noble Baroness, Lady Pidgeon, and the conversations it would require. Whether it is one conversation or many, it is about making sure that the right time is made available so that they are properly carried out. In this group, I am keen to focus on the specialist aspect of palliative care: it is about not just generalist education but making sure that we are absolutely able to raise the bar for the specialist palliative care that is available to everyone, to make sure they get the right support at the time they need it.

[Baroness Barker (LD)]

My Lords, like the noble Baroness, Lady Morris, I spend a lot of time sitting on the Woolsack. I did not take part in the debates on the assisted dying Bill; I could not, because I was caring for somebody who, as I said at Second Reading, died in June. I am actually very pleased that I did not take part, because I do not think that I could have done so with the composure required. I listened to a lot of the debates, and that Bill did a substantial amount of damage to this House in many ways.

One of the things it did was to damage the reputation of the House among carers’ groups, because several speeches on that Bill really denigrated carers—“some carers”, I imagine the people who made those speeches would say—leaving the impression that many in this House believe that carers can be unfeeling and mercenary, without any evidence to substantiate that. When we go on to look at what happened with that Bill, as we must, we will need to think carefully about things like that.

I say that because my experience and the experience of my wife was completely different from that. My wife was diagnosed with a condition that she knew would be terminal. At the point that that happened, she made her advance choice direction and she stuck to it; she did not want to be resuscitated. My experience and hers—she was always in charge, as far as I was concerned—was that every healthcare professional she came across asked her about that. They did not argue about it but, time and again, they asked her whether she still wanted it. She was quite clear; her statement was as clear as it could be. Yes, she would be treated for something that was treatable and could be reversed but, no, she did not want to be revived if she was dying.