Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Hannah Bardell Excerpts

Wednesday 21st February 2018 Commons Chamber

[Mr Hunt]

Those are both important points. I will make one comment about the second one. The spreading of best practice is central. We must ensure that we do not just have a system where we have new NICE guidelines, but that we have confidence that it is being implemented across 30,000 GPs in 250 NHS trusts and so on, and I know Baroness Cumberlege will be thinking about that.

[Hannah Bardell (Livingston) (SNP)]

For my constituents Wilma Ord and her daughter, Kirsteen, the wait for action on this issue and to get truth and justice has been almost unbearable. While I welcome the Secretary of State’s candour and tone, the actions outlined today are not enough, and I fear that the baroness, as welcome as she will be to this process, will be doing her job with one hand tied behind her back. The Secretary of State said in his statement that we are not revisiting the science, but then said that we needed to be led by science. Unless I misheard him, there is a contradiction. Will he confirm that the victims affected by all these issues will be at the heart of this, as will the science, because there is an important new study by Neil Vargesson that must be considered in this process in relation to Primodos?

[Mr Hunt]

I do not accept that there is a contradiction. We have to be open to the science and we have to be led by the science at every stage, and if there is new scientific evidence, we must absolutely take that on board. We must also always be led by patients in what we do, and that is exactly what I am announcing.