Drugs: Methadone

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 28th October 2019 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

Heroin-assisted treatment can be an effective way of treating individuals for whom other opioid substitutes have not been effective. It is open to local areas under the existing legal framework, but given that funding decisions on drug and alcohol treatment have been devolved, it is for them to decide whether to commission HAT services based on their assessment of local need.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, are the Government seriously suggesting that they could be spending £1 billion but do not actually know whether they are?

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford]

No, the Government are suggesting that a PHE review in 2017 found that drug and alcohol treatment services are currently as good as or better than international comparators. They are cost-effective and the outcomes are good. However, we recognise that the number of deaths at the moment is too high, which is why the Home Office has commissioned a review of drugs policy by Dame Carol Black, and there will be a summit in Glasgow before the end of the year to find out what more can be done to improve these services.

NHS: Waiting Times

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 18th December 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I am not familiar with the type of insurance the noble Lord is talking about, but would be delighted to see what he has been offered. The 2012 Act obliges income from non-NHS activities to be tied to a foundation trust’s principal purpose, which is,

“the provision of goods and services for the purposes of the health service of England”,

and that is the standard by which it should be held. He is right that waiting lists have been growing. The NHS is doing more than ever—2 million more operations in 2017-18 than in 2010—but we realise that we need to do more, which is why the Prime Minister made the historic commitment to increase funding in the NHS by £20 billion in real terms in five years’ time.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, is it not the case that people who can afford to see a consultant can jump the queue? In a civilised society, is that not wrong?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The noble Lord well knows that we live in a society which has a mixture of public and private provision. That is true of every public service in most countries of the developed world. The critical point is that we need to invest in our National Health Service, and that is something the Prime Minister is determined to do.

Health: Contraceptive Services

Lord Watts Excerpts

Thursday 11th October 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

The noble Baroness is quite right that there is an obligation in the GP contract. We are in the process of renegotiating the contract for the next financial year, and I shall certainly take that issue back and feed it in to the team that is carrying out the negotiation.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, now that austerity is over, when will local government budgets be restored so that local authorities can address issues such as the one we are hearing about today?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

Local authority budgets will of course be a matter for the spending review that will take place at some point during the next year.

General Practitioners: Indemnity Scheme

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 16th July 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

The noble Lord is right to highlight this issue. It is important to state that the rising cost of indemnity is not driven by a poor or worsening safety record but by the volume of activity and the rising cost of the average claim. Not only do we need to make sure that we reduce those costs, for example, by introducing a fixed recoverable cost scheme, we also need to reduce the number of safety issues so that there are fewer claims to bring in the first place.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, is it not the case that the costs are rising because GPs do not have sufficient time to see their patients? It is all linked to the shortage of GPs, which means that they have to see more patients for shorter periods.

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

No, it is not.

Prescription Drugs: Dependence

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 19th March 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I would definitely be straying into Home Office territory by commenting on that. I would point out that cannabis remains illegal in this country and that the PHE review’s scope is to work within the drug strategy set out by the Home Office.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, does the shortage of mental health services in the NHS and the cuts to local authorities not mean that GPs often have no alternative but to prescribe drugs? Should the Government not address the shortages in both those areas?

National Child Obesity Strategy

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 26th February 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

I thank my noble friend for that and applaud the work that she has done in this area. The Amsterdam effect seems significant and is an area we are looking at as we consider further actions in future.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree that it would be a good idea to reintroduce domestic science into all schools so that people have a better mechanism for preparing and eating more quality foods than fast foods?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

I reassure the noble Lord that the national curriculum, through PSHE, includes elements around nutrition and healthy eating. Indeed, many schools offer the kind of classes he is talking about.

NHS: Nurse Retention

Lord Watts Excerpts

Wednesday 17th January 2018 Lords Chamber

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

In the last few years there has been an increase in agency spend. Of course, per nursing hour that tends to be more expensive. We have managed to reduce agency spend by increasing the availability of nursing banks. Those are the people employed on flexible contracts, which is very welcome for many nurses who are looking for—as they say in staff surveys—greater flexible working arrangements.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, how did the Government get their planning so wrong? The demographics were known, and yet the Government have failed to plan to provide the sorts of numbers of nurses that we need. What went wrong?

[Lord O’Shaughnessy]

We know that we have a growing ageing population—I do not doubt that. We have been increasing real-terms funding for the NHS, which is going on more staff. Nurse numbers have increased and I should point out that there are more doctors and ambulance staff. There have been about 40,000 more clinical staff in general in the NHS over the past few years and more to come in the future.

Nurses and Midwives: Numbers

Lord Watts Excerpts

Monday 4th December 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, given the shortage of medical staff right across the board, should not the Government exempt them from quotas so that we can guarantee that we will have the medical staff and support staff that we need in our hospitals?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

In the long run, we want to be in a position to provide more of our staff domestically. There are concerns about the fact that we recruit from other countries, not least developing countries—I do not think that that is a long-term, sustainable position. In addition to the additional nurse training places that I mentioned, more medical training places for doctors are coming through, so we will be achieving that position in future.

Mental Health Care: Vulnerable Children

Lord Watts Excerpts

Tuesday 28th November 2017 Lords Chamber

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

The right reverend Prelate is quite right: there is stigma attached. There have been a number of important initiatives, not least from His Royal Highness Prince Harry—who I am sure we all want to congratulate on his recent engagement—to reduce stigma and to demonstrate that mental health problems can, unfortunately, strike anyone of any positional station in society at any time in their life. Making that admission is the first step to seeking help.

[Lord Watts (Lab)]

My Lords, what are the Government doing to make sure that health trusts spend the resources available on this area of work? The facilities that these children are being seen in is appalling in some cases. What are the Government going to do about both of those issues?

[Lord O'Shaughnessy]

I can reassure the noble Lord that spending on children and young people’s mental health by CCGs, which are responsible for commissioning those services, increased by 20% between 2014-15 and 2015-16, so spending is increasing. Clearly, one of the areas in which that money is being spent is on better facilities. One of the additional changes is that about 150 new beds will be commissioned in underserved areas so that we can reduce the number of out-of-area placements, which can be quite disturbing for some of the children and young people who have to use them.