Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Lord Patel Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

I thank my noble friend for his comments and for his role in commissioning this important report. His point on the safety commissioner is extremely well made. I am not ruling out anything whatever, but we need time to study the report before we can make any commitments.

[Lord Patel (CB) [V]]

My Lords, I thank the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, and her team for what is a hard-hitting report, and rightly so. Reading it, I felt anger and shame—anger that so many women patients were treated with such disdain and felt that they were not listened to; and ashamed that members of a profession I belong to showed such ignorance, arrogance, duplicity and callousness towards the very people who put trust in them. As a member of that profession, I apologise wholeheartedly to women who suffered and I hope that the profession takes heed of them. Much of the report draws on narratives from women, and I was struck by one who called herself

“an unsuspecting, unwilling participant in a cruel experiment”.

No patient should ever feel that. I hope this report is a wake-up call for the professional organisations too, to take charge and become more patient-focused, rather than professional-focused, and to deliver the care that patients deserve. I am a long-time supporter of the charity Epilepsy Action. It has welcomed the report and hopes that action will be taken soon, particularly for women and mothers in relation to sodium valproate. I support the questions asked of Ministers and I hope we will soon see action.