NHS: Public Information and Advice

Lord Bishop of Blackburn Excerpts

Tuesday 12th June 2012 Lords Chamber

[Earl Howe]

My noble friend is right. Many dentists are good at conforming to the terms of their contract, which means making it clear to patients what it will cost them to have a particular course of NHS treatment. Other dentists, I am afraid to say, are less scrupulous. It is part of the contractual arrangement that dentists should be open on that score and it is an area to which we are currently devoting a good deal of attention.

[The Lord Bishop of Blackburn]

My Lords, one of the most startling ways that deprivation is measured is by health inequalities. We are all aware that, under the Act, the responsibility for public health passes to local authorities. As I understand it, local authorities do not have a duty under the Act to prioritise the reduction of health inequalities. How will the Government use the non-legislative processes open to them to reduce inequalities, especially with regard to local authorities?

[Earl Howe]

The answer to the right reverend Prelate, who makes a good point, is that clinical commissioning groups do have and will have a duty to bear down upon health inequalities and to ensure that they look after not only the patients on GP lists but the unregistered patients in their catchment areas as well. What we expect to see emerging from the joint health and well-being strategies coming out of the health and well-being boards is account being taken of those hard-to-reach groups in society who may not be on the immediate radar of GPs, but whose needs are nevertheless extremely acute and will have to be factored into commissioning plans.