Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill (Fifth sitting)

Liz Saville Roberts Excerpts

Committee stage
Wednesday 29th January 2025 Public Bill Committees

[Tom Gordon (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (LD)]

Q I have a question for Professor Esmail. One of the things that we have talked about with different witnesses is whether we should have a wider panel of people looking at these decisions; that might encompass people from social care, medical or legal backgrounds. I think that that would make sure that some of the issues that we have talked about would, hopefully, be more robustly picked up on. Do you think that by moving towards that in the Bill—were we to have assisted dying—it might provide a more holistic approach to end of life and to giving people that option? How might that influence and change palliative care and other interactions?

Professor Esmail: I feel that this Bill will make things much better, in the sense that when you have a conversation with someone, they could sometimes have even as a reassurance, “Look, if things get really bad, I have this option available.” That is important, and it can certainly help in that respect.

In terms of holistic care, currently when I look after dying people I never do it on my own; I am with district nurses, Macmillan nurses, or on call to a palliative care consultant. There is already a team of people looking after dying people. Where it works well, it works very well. We should not be burdened by the fact that everyone complains about how terrible everything is. I would say that probably 95% of the time, it is okay. There are issues with social care and so on, but I think that palliative care—the drugs people need, how often they get them and who gives them—works very well and it works in a multidisciplinary way. I think that this legislation will allow a much more open discussion and proper monitoring. It will improve training, guidance and everything else. People say that it will enhance palliative care, and that is what I think will happen.

[Liz Saville Roberts (Dwyfor Meirionnydd) (PC)]

Q I have a question for Professor Esmail. We heard from the Australian witnesses this morning that there was a period of implementation after legislation of 18 months. Do you think we should have a period of implementation, and what should that comprise?

Professor Esmail: I think we will need to have one, because we will need to train people up and put in place all these things. You do not want to pass a Bill that a lot of people cannot access. It will require thought about how we plan this. As with any service, it is much better to think about it and ensure that we cover all options. As I said, the worst thing would be to pass a Bill and not have the right things in place. For example, the training will take a while. I am not saying that it will take 18 months to train someone, but we are talking about training groups of doctors and nurses, and ensuring that the pathways are correct and that the legal system can deal with the requests. That will clearly take time, and we will need a lot of systems thinking about how it all fits together. You cannot specify, and I do not know how good this country is at this, but that is what should happen. It can sometimes happen very effectively and quickly.

[The Chair]

I am afraid we will only have time for the last question from Rachel Hopkins. We have only three minutes left.