Children and Young People: Mental Health

Baroness Meacher Excerpts

Wednesday 28th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Lord hits on an important point. Not only is mental illness unfortunately rising in prevalence, but it is everybody’s responsibility to try to help young people who suffer from it. That is what lies behind the proposals in the Green Paper, which contains a number of elements. He is quite right: there is additional training that will be applicable for all teachers, in mental health first aid, for example. It will also make sure that pupils understand it, changing the PHSE curriculum for more focus on mental health and well-being. That is why the designated leads are so important, because they bring that together at school level. So I agree with the noble Lord that schools have a critical role to play in dealing with this problem of mental health.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

My Lords, the Minister will be aware that young people with severe mental health problems can wait up to four and half months for treatment when a young person with severe physical health problems can expect to be seen within the day. Of course we all want equal treatment of these two groups. I very much welcome the Government’s plan to spend £1.25 billion extra in this area. However, does the Minister have an estimated average waiting time for young people with severe mental health problems once the £1.25 billion is in place?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I do not have a specific time, but I point to two things. First, there are now waiting time standards for early intervention in psychosis and eating disorders. Those waiting time standards will become more exacting over time, but they are being met at the moment. The Green Paper also proposes a pilot of four-week waiting times for access to specialist services in the NHS. We have a long way to go—average waits are 12 weeks—so we are inevitably starting incrementally, but the ambition is that over time, we will roll that out as a nationwide ambition. However, I am afraid that I cannot give the noble Baroness a deadline.

Prescription Drugs: Dependence

Baroness Meacher Excerpts

Monday 19th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

My noble friend has just given a much better and more incisive answer than I could have given. There is a distinction; the point here is that these are drugs that people have started to take because they have needed them. I should point out one area that is not included in the review; it is not looking at cancer and terminal pain, because we need to make sure that there is appropriate pain relief for people who are in the last stages of their life.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

My Lords, is the Minister aware of the very powerful evidence from the United States that one of the most effective ways of reducing dependency on opioids is to legalise cannabis for the relief of pain? Cannabis is far less addictive and far less dangerous, yet it is incredibly effective for large numbers of patients.

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I would definitely be straying into Home Office territory by commenting on that. I would point out that cannabis remains illegal in this country and that the PHE review’s scope is to work within the drug strategy set out by the Home Office.

Health: Flu

Baroness Meacher Excerpts

Monday 30th October 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I agree with the noble Baroness about the role of community pharmacy. It is worth bearing in mind that some 88% of people are within a 20-minute walk of a community pharmacy, which is accessible for the vast majority. There are also 20% more pharmacies than there were 12 or 13 years ago. Pharmacies have a critical role to play and are there in the community, but companies come in and out all the time.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

My Lords, I talked to a very senior NHS consultant this morning. To my absolute amazement, he said that the latest research showed that compulsory flu jabs for NHS staff provide no significant improvement at all in patient health. This is rather striking and a bit unexpected. Does the Minister have any different research evidence?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

That is unexpected and would be worrying if it is true. That is not the information on which we have based our policy. Our information is that, for most people—though not all—flu jabs are effective in mitigating the risk of flu in care settings.

Mental Health Services: Children and Adolescents

Baroness Meacher Excerpts

Monday 17th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I thank the noble Baroness for highlighting this very important issue. She will know that ring-fencing funding for mental health comes up a lot. There has been increased funding for mental health, but there is more than one reason why ring-fencing is not used for clinical commissioning groups, including honouring the principle of clinical autonomy, and we do not ring-fence around particular disease areas. I should point out that CCGs are being monitored now to ensure that they are increasing spending on mental health, year on year, in line with the increases in funding they are receiving, which is £1.4 billion over the coming years. The noble Baroness is of course quite right in what she said about the specific issue of children under the age of 18. That is why, among other things, we have committed to introducing mental health first aid in all secondary schools.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

The Minister will be aware that the threshold for children and adolescents who have severe mental health problems is extraordinarily high and that they may have to wait months before getting any treatment, whereas children with similar levels of physical ill health will be treated within perhaps a day or days. Does he accept that we are still an incredibly long way from equality between mental and physical healthcare, and what does he plan to do about it?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I accept the point that the noble Baroness makes. Unfortunately, we are starting from a low base, over many years, in mental health provision, and that is what we are trying to rectify. She will know that the Prime Minister is deeply committed to this agenda. Let me point to a couple of issues. First, there is the introduction of the first waiting time standards—and indeed there are positive early data on meeting those stretching standards—as well as an increase in the number of beds available for those suffering from the most severe episodes of mental illness.

NHS: Working Conditions

Baroness Meacher Excerpts

Wednesday 5th July 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I can only reiterate that I recognise the pressures on the workforce. That is why we are recruiting more GPs and nurses. There are more than 50,000 in training, and we are aiming to get 5,000 more GPs into the NHS over the next few years. On the noble Baroness’s point about moving treatment out of hospitals and into the community, that is one of the core drivers of the STP process, which is about reorganising care so that it happens sooner and, ideally, in a preventive way rather than after the fact.

[Baroness Meacher (CB)]

My Lords, I think the Minister will be aware that GPs are routinely required to see, diagnose and treat 80-plus patients in a day. What plans do the Government have to ease that situation when it is still getting worse month by month and it is proving impossible to recruit GPs? In the meantime, until things improve, will the Minister have discussions with the CQC and the ombudsman about how best they should undertake their jobs, taking account of the horrendous pressures on NHS staff and on GPs in particular?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness is quite right to talk about the importance of having more general practitioners. I have talked about the increases in recent years—there have been net increases of 5,000 over the last 10 years—and the fact that we are recruiting another 5,000 over the next few years. I do not pretend that it is easy to recruit them, but the numbers are increasing. One of the keys to solving this problem is through the new models of care. In its General Practice Forward View, which was published last year, NHS England demonstrated a renewed emphasis on general practice and reforming it. That is one way of ensuring that GPs can cope with what is of course an increasing workload.