Future of the National Health Service

Debate between Hannah Bardell and Chris Green

Wednesday 22nd September 2021 Westminster Hall

[Chris Green (Bolton West) (Con)]

It is a pleasure to follow the hon. Member for Leeds East (Richard Burgon). He made a powerful speech, true to his beliefs and values, and he made some powerful points.

It reminded me of my more radical background when it comes to politics, especially in terms of health. I remember attending—not participating in—a demonstration and march in 2011 in Chorlton, shortly after the new Government came in. It was a reasonably left-leaning march and there were a few Soviet Union flags with the hammer and sickle. One of the most powerful contributions was from a trade union rep, who said, “We don’t need change. We don’t need innovation in the National Health Service. The only change you ever needed in the NHS was in 1948 when it was created. We don’t need any change from then.” That was the spirit, and it is the view that too many people have.

The NHS ought to be changing all the time, in different ways, to keep up with the way people work, and with technology and culture. There are so many ways in which the national health service ought to be changing all the time. We need legislation, led by my hon. Friend the Minister, to make sure that we keep up with changes in society. People would be outraged if we had not moved on culturally from 1948.

What does that lead to? Fundamentally, we ought to be focusing on the importance of patients’ values and needs, to make sure that they are at the centre of the national health service. It is not fundamentally about NHS structures, although those are incredibly important, or about maintaining structures as they are forever, but about ensuring that those structures reflect the needs of the national health service so that it is as effective as possible.

We hear discussions and talk about globalisation, which we know is a reality. Many parts of globalisation are a threat, as highlighted by the hon. Member for Leeds East, who talked about the threats and concerns. However, there are also significant opportunities. We want better access to drugs and medicines, especially innovative drugs and the latest drugs. If we look at figures from the European Medicines Agency about the adoption of drugs, we see that England is behind Germany, Denmark, Austria, Switzerland and Italy. We ought to be at the forefront of the adoption of new drugs and new ways to look after people’s lives.

What do we need to understand when we are thinking about this, especially when we consider treatments and support for people with rare conditions? The UK is often not big enough to provide the innovation for these new treatments, so we need international collaborations. The national health service and other UK bodies need to work with countries around the world, but there is a place for corporations, whether in America, Japan or other places.

We need to ensure that our research and development effort collaborates and works with countries around the world. That cannot be on a Government-to-Government or Government agency-to-Government agency basis only. It has to be right through the system. If we do not have that approach where we need clinical trials at scale to support people or to find new treatments for people with rare diseases, it will not happen. We need to participate in international trials as well.

I would expect these things and I hope my hon. Friend the Minister will articulate that they give more potential to the national health service, because we need more engagement. At the moment, the national health service does not function in the way that many people around the country believe it ought to function. It ought to be far more engaged in clinical trials. Talking to many people from the sector, my sense is that that is down to individual leadership in particular trusts.

Too many trusts do not lead and participate in innovation or the adoption of new drugs, once they have been approved. The system is too slow and it often takes far too long, so patients and patient groups know that their trust or clinical commissioning group does not have the life-enhancing or even life-saving treatment that is available. We need that reform of the system to ensure that it looks after the patients.

There is another aspect that needs changing, which is the way that the NHS is funded or operates. I have a strong sense that it is relatively straightforward for the NHS to adopt a new drug. However, it is far more challenging for the NHS to adopt a new medical device because of the up-front costs and the training needs at the beginning. It is more difficult to adopt a device than it is a drug, and we need to have parity in that. We need the NHS to have the ability to adopt these devices and adapt to them.

That naturally leads on to what devices do. A key part of devices is the generation of data. Data is important for understanding the performance and ability of new treatments to make a difference to people’s lives. The NHS does not operate, to any extent, as a system that works and engages properly and fully with data systems. We need reform of the NHS to do that.

[Hannah Bardell (in the Chair)]

Order. I hope the hon. Member will wind up his comments shortly.

[Chris Green]

I will. The integrated care systems ought to be part of this, with local leadership, and hopefully strong accountability, to ensure that leaders in those areas can drive that engagement with medical research technology charities, corporations, institutes and universities, to ensure that the NHS is innovative, adopts new technologies and ensures that patients have the best they can. That is a huge amount of reform, and it must start now.