NHS: Medical Competence and Skill

Lord Selsdon Excerpts

Wednesday 7th January 2015 Lords Chamber

[Lord Selsdon (Con)]

My Lords, I am most grateful to the noble Lord, Lord Parekh, for giving me an opportunity to say things that I never thought I would say. In my family, we have had many doctors but we did not do being ill. We were brought up to believe that you suffered and you lived. However, one day, we had an incident at home when I learnt about NHS 111. I dialled 111 and, in no time at all, a member of the family was advised. I went off to my first experience of A&E, which lasted for only four and half hours, and I learnt quite a lot.

Another day, to my horror, I was standing here speaking when I suddenly felt rather faint. When I went out, I nearly passed out, and when I got to my office in Millbank, the word was out and a paramedic was there. He found that he was not competent to look after me properly and, before I knew it, an ambulance arrived and then another. I was tested and overwhelmed with the overcompetence of the issue.

After that I thought that perhaps I had better register with the NHS, which was rather a pleasant exercise. The local operation was rather busy, but it thought that it might be able to fit me in because my wife was there. Since then, I have been extraordinarily impressed. You ring up and ask for an appointment. Usually you can get one within a day or, if it is urgent, more quickly. You walk there and wait for 10 minutes. You are seen for 10 minutes, and a diagnosis takes place. The e-mails go off and you are told which clinic or wherever you should go for the next stage. Then you walk down the road to the pharmacy to get your prescription, with the dog in tow.

I had not realised the significance of pharmacists, who are, in a way, linked to the NHS. I interviewed a few and found to my surprise that there are 12,000 pharmacies in the United Kingdom and that a trained pharmacist spends more time in training than a doctor. Then you realise that there is a link: almost every time you consult a doctor, you end up with a prescription that you take to a pharmacist. I have spoken to several pharmacists and to their association and have realised that there could be a much closer link between them and the medical profession.

My interest in this sector is that when I was in the financial world, I dealt with some of the newer technologies, which I have mentioned on other occasions, not least the developments in the stem cell field. I did some research into the burdens of disease in Europe. To my surprise, cardio came top at 21%, followed by mental at 20%. Down the line was cancer at only 11%. Looking at the afflictions, as one would call them, you found that heart and cancer were almost equal. One of the biggest afflictions was Alzheimer’s, which I would not know how to treat.

I thought about what can be done in the high-tech or the technological field to use the latest technology. At that time, I got involved with the Germans in working with adult stem cells. We looked at the areas of operation. I did not realise that bits out people’s hips were taken out and were injected here and there. There were problems of morality. In Germany, I spoke to Professor Strauer, who had developed some of these technologies and found that there were some religious factors against it. A meeting was held, surprisingly, with the Pope, who approved that this sort of invasive surgery was reasonable.

I am talking about myself, a complete amateur. Amateur means someone who loves his subject but probably knows nothing about it. When I introduced people for stem cell treatment, I found that it was very simple: you take something out of one part of the body and inject it into another. Before you know it, you may have cured the problem of diabetic foot. I had a great friend whose wife was suffering very badly and I asked him why he did not look at the application of adult stem cell treatment, which he did. I did not see him for a while, but when I did he said that his wife was much better. Then you get one of those moving moments in life: his wife lived for another four years. I was invited to the funeral at a church in France, at which my friend thanked me for giving them a further few years together.

When you look at some of the new technologies in health, you have to say that some are to help to cure people and some are to help to keep people alive. Health is part of the social scene. It is the interrelationship between the professions, the nurses and others. The Minister has spoken today about A&E centres. I am a leading expert on them as I have spent many hours in them waiting to collect people, looking at the nationalities of people and wondering why you need four ambulances stationed outside. The A&E situation has come to dominate the British health situation overall. Can the Minister give us an idea of how many A&E patients are now being served? What are their nationalities and what are the costs? I accept that my experience with a local health operation has been very thorough. I have a code name that I can ring. I am told that I must receive an e-mail every five minutes. I am very impressed indeed, and I thank the Minister for what he has done.