Paramedic Services Debate
Full Debate: Read Full DebateDepartment: Department of Health and Social Care
Lord Tugendhat
Main Page: Lord Tugendhat (Conservative - Life peer)Department Debates - View all Lord Tugendhat's debates with the Department of Health and Social Care
(2 years, 4 months ago)
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Lord Kamall (Con)
The noble Baroness will know from the debates that we had during the passage of the Health and Care Bill that there is a 15-year plan; Health Education England has been tasked with that. In addition, significant amounts of things are being done at the local trust level, so it is not just a sort of five-year, top-down Soviet-type plan but is looking at recruitment at a local level. There is also a national discharge task force that works with national and local government and the NHS to identify long-term sustainable changes which could reduce delayed discharges and ensure that patients are in hospital only for as long as they need to be.
Lord Tugendhat (Con)
My Lords, what role does the Minister think the police might have to play in this? Last Wednesday I was knocked down in Great George Street by a bicycle and rendered unconscious. Although a paramedic arrived from St Thomas’ by bicycle quite quickly, there was no ambulance. I was very grateful to the police for taking me into St Thomas’ and depositing me at the A&E. That was very helpful, and I wonder whether the Minister thinks that might happen more often.
Lord Kamall (Con)
I thank my noble friend for sharing that experience, and it is good to see that he has recovered and is able to ask the question. One interesting thing that is being looked at as part of the overall review—again, we have to be very careful about unintended consequences—is how many of these cases can be treated at the scene without requiring the patient to be taken to hospital. That will need careful thought as it is a difficult trade-off. In this case, clearly, they were looking at the possibility of someone else taking my noble friend to hospital, and he was fortunate that there was a police officer nearby who was able to do that. However, with any of these interventions we have to be careful and make sure that we are fully aware of unintended consequences that could make things worse.