Karin Smyth MP: speeches

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Speeches

16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source
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Yes, as that will be one from each side of the aisle.
16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source
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I beg to move an amendment, to leave out from “Parliament” to the end of the Question and add: “; welcomes the urgency with which the new Government commissioned Lord Darzi to conduct an independent investigation of the NHS in England; recognises that within weeks of taking office the Government invested £82 million to recruit 1,000 newly qualified GPs; notes the Government commitment to tackle the dental crisis by providing 700,000 urgent dental appointments and recruiting new dentists to the areas that need them; approves the Government’s commitment to expand the role of pharmacies and better utilise the skills of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians; and welcomes the Government’s commitment to further reduce unnecessary bureaucracy as care shifts from hospital to community.” I recognise that many people want to speak, so I will be as brief as possible. I begin by thanking the hon. Member for North Shropshire (Helen Morgan) for starting this debate. I think she spoke for us all when she said that she spent a lot of time looking for her glasses— I recently decided to go for the varifocal option just to avoid that problem. She also spoke for us all when she said that we all know how great it is when primary care is there for us. I am proud to have worked with primary care across the piece in south Bristol for many years. Although the hon. Lady and I are on opposite sides of the Chamber, I think we can agree that the last Government broke primary care at the same time as they were breaking the NHS. Throughout my time in opposition, and in my first three months in government, I simply have not met or spoken to a GP, a pharmacist, a dentist or, indeed, anyone else working in primary care who has said, “Everything is going swimmingly. My patients are happy, and this is exactly what I signed up for.” Lord Darzi’s review tells the same story and sets out an enormous charge sheet, and we still have not heard whether the Conservative party agrees or, indeed, whether it will apologise. The list is far too long to repeat in full. Hospital workforces and budgets have shot up, yet full-time equivalent GP numbers have been allowed to shrink by over 1,500 over the last seven years. Promises to shift resources to the community have been repeatedly broken, and our primary care estate is not fit for purpose. Shockingly, one in five general practice buildings is older than the NHS itself.
16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source
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I wish the hon. Gentleman well with his own access to a GP at the moment. We are committed to working with the profession on the best way to organise primary care. The critical point is that primary care, however it is organised in neighbourhoods, is there for our constituents when they need it. It is not there now. The model is not working and has not worked over a period of time. It has merits, as we have said, and we are continuing to talk to people. I have worked in the sector for a number of years, so I understand the point the hon. Gentleman makes.
16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source
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I thank the hon. Lady for her assiduous work in opposition. Looking at the capital estate is one of my favourite new responsibilities, and our commitment to a neighbourhood service means that we need to bring services together. We need to look at this across the piece, to make sure that primary care is provided where it is needed. We often hear about hard-to-reach groups, but I do not think they are that hard to reach. Frankly, services are sometimes located in the wrong area. One of our key commitments is to shift services into communities, and the neighbourhood service programme is part of that. Just three in 10 NHS dentists are accepting new adult patients, and geographical inequalities are vast. More than 1,200 pharmacies have shut their doors for good since 2017. Again, the record speaks for itself: public satisfaction with general practice has fallen from 80% in 2009 to just 35% last year. If there is any reason why the Conservative Benches are empty, it is because dissatisfaction with access to primary care is so stark, as we learned in July’s general election. It is absolutely clear that primary care is broken, but NHS staff working in primary care did not break it; the last Government did. They cut funding for the community pharmacy contract, they failed to incentivise enough dentists to perform NHS work, and they pursued a disastrous top-down reorganisation of the NHS, with which we are still living. The last Government might have broken the NHS, but it is not beaten. NHS staff remain as passionate, dedicated and skilful as ever, and this Government will work in lockstep with them, their counterparts in social care and local partners across the country to fix the NHS.
16 Oct 2024 · Access to Primary Healthcare · Hansard source
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I am tempted, but I know that many of the hon. Lady’s colleagues want to speak, and I am sure she is on the list. Fixing the NHS will take years of discipline and hard work, and we are in this for the long haul. However, we must first clean up the mess we inherited, and that work has begun in earnest. We have found the funding to recruit an extra 1,000 GPs this year as our first step towards fixing the NHS’s front door and making the system more flexible.
15 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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As Lord Darzi outlined, capital development in the NHS is shocking, with a backlog of £11 billion in maintenance. I would be happy to meet the hon. Member to discuss his problem.
15 Oct 2024 · Topical Questions · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is right to raise the crisis of midwifery services. We have already had debates in Westminster Hall about this, and the issue affects the entire country. It is a priority for this Government, and I am of course happy to meet her to discuss her constituency issue.
15 Oct 2024 · NHS Urgent and Emergency Care · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend has highlighted an issue that is often overlooked. Homelessness has risen to shocking levels in the last 14 years. When it was addressed under the last Labour Government, people were moved off the streets, and there was decent care at the front end of the hospital system and support in the community. My hon. Friend is right: there are good examples across the country, and we would like to see them embedded as part of our overall goal, across Government, of reducing the scourge of homelessness in society and once again supporting the front end of the health service.
15 Oct 2024 · NHS Urgent and Emergency Care · Hansard source
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What we see at the front end of the system is a result of the deterioration throughout the system, and the flow of patients from the community, through discharge and, indeed, through social care. Our ambitious 10-year plan will involve examining the entire patient pathway to ensure that care is provided in the community, closer to home. Prevention is a key part of that, as is the look that we are taking at social care.
15 Oct 2024 · NHS Urgent and Emergency Care · Hansard source
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I commend my hon. Friend for championing this issue on behalf of his constituents. I understand that he has raised it with the chief executive officer of his local trust. He will appreciate that commissioning decisions are a matter for the local integrated care board, in this case Kent and Medway ICB, but I am, of course, very happy to meet him to discuss it further.
15 Oct 2024 · NHS Urgent and Emergency Care · Hansard source
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I thank the hon. Gentleman for his good wishes. It is, indeed, a huge task we have before us. We will maintain ambulance capacity throughout this winter. He makes a valuable point about alternative models to hospital admissions and treatment in the community. That is a matter for the local ICB, as I know he knows. It needs to look at which model is the best fit, particularly in rural areas, to reduce the pressure on frontline A&E services.
15 Oct 2024 · NHS Urgent and Emergency Care · Hansard source
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The recent independent report by Lord Darzi makes it absolutely clear that urgent and emergency care services are also struggling, with the latest data published last week showing that one in 10 patients spend over 12 hours in A&E. We are committed to returning to service standards that patients rightly expect through our ambitious 10-year plan to reform the health service.
15 Oct 2024 · Health Outcomes: East Midlands · Hansard source
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My hon. Friend is absolutely right. We are committed to improving diagnostics as part of our reform of the health sector. Analysis of waiting lists shows that 20% of people will end up with a hospital admission, most as a day case. To improve waiting times, the focus must be on early prevention, diagnostics and consultant review at an early stage.
15 Oct 2024 · Health Outcomes: East Midlands · Hansard source
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I thank the right hon. Gentleman for helping to underline the shocking inheritance from the previous Government. He is absolutely right. We are committed to cutting waiting times and serving constituents, like mine, by delivering the long-term reform the NHS desperately needs. The Government are committed to the funding model. We are not going to change it. He tries this every time, but we are committed to the funding model as it exists.
15 Oct 2024 · Health Outcomes: East Midlands · Hansard source
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Lord Darzi’s report concluded that the health service is in a critical condition across the country, including in the east midlands, where healthy life expectancy has declined in the past decade. Waiting lists in the region stand at slightly below the national average for 18-week waits, at 57% compared to the national average of 58%.
9 Oct 2024 · Cass Review · Hansard source
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The Secretary of State has met the leaders of all the devolved Administrations to discuss our intention to work with them very closely across all issues that come under our sphere, including the Cass recommendations.
9 Oct 2024 · Cass Review · Hansard source
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The Cass review is a robust report backed by clinicians and firmly grounded in evidence. The Government and NHS England will be implementing Dr Cass’s recommendations in full, so that children and young people get the safe, holistic care and support they need.
9 Oct 2024 · Cass Review · Hansard source
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As I said in my original answer, the Government are absolutely committed to implementing all of Dr Cass’s evidence-based review in full.
9 Oct 2024 · Cass Review · Hansard source
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I cannot reiterate any more strongly than I have that this Government are absolutely committed to implementing the Cass review’s evidence-based recommendations in full.
9 Oct 2024 · Maternity Services: Gloucestershire · Hansard source
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Christopher. With your leave, I will start with a few words to mark Baby Loss Awareness Week. Many mums and dads across the country have suffered the heartbreak of losing a baby. Everyone deals with grief in a different way, but it has been moving to hear from parents how baby loss certificates have allowed them to process what they have gone through and have helped give them closure. That is why this week we launched an extension to the baby loss certificate service, which is a voluntary scheme to enable parents who have experienced a pregnancy loss to record and receive a certificate to provide recognition of their loss, should they wish. Until now the service was only open to parents who had experienced a loss since 1 September 2018, but today we are removing that restriction, making the certificates available for every parent who has lost a child. We will update the House with a formal written statement shortly. The Government are committed to delivering compassionate care for women and support for parents who have suffered a baby loss. It is the right thing to do. I think this has been a genuinely good debate. We have heard from experts—I commend the Opposition spokesperson the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson) and my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud (Dr Opher) for the work they do—and others have shared experiences. I knew that the hon. Member for Cheltenham (Max Wilkinson) would bring forward good points too, so I contacted the trust myself so that I could give the hon. Gentleman and hon. Members present my frank assessment of what is happening on the ground. To reiterate, as of August 2024 the midwifery vacancy rate in the Gloucestershire hospitals NHS foundation trust stood at 13%—the equivalent of 32 full-time midwives. That level is high for the south-west, though roughly in line with the national average. In April 2022, the Care Quality Commission gave the trust a warning notice for the maternity service, and rated it “inadequate” a year later. In May this year, the CQC issued the section 31 notice—a severe warning that requires at minimum an immediate action and improvement plan, which, as colleagues will know, in some other settings could result in a closure. It issued that after seeing postpartum haemorrhage rates, poor foetal monitoring and high levels of agency staffing. The hon. Member for Cheltenham and others from the area are right to be concerned. We can all agree that it is unacceptable when new mothers do not receive the highest possible standard of care. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State has said, we should be honest about the problems in our NHS and serious about fixing them. Maternity services are very far from where we want them to be. Childbirth should not be something that women fear or look back on with trauma. Safety is obviously paramount. As the hon. Member for Cheltenham said, it should be a special moment. I thank the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate (Claire Young) for sharing her experiences. I was in hospital for two weeks after having my first child, and it is a traumatic time, so the length of time she mentioned must have been very difficult. My second came out so quickly that I was in and out of hospital before we knew it. My third child, as has been mentioned, was almost delivered at home by my husband after we had chosen a home birth. He is not medically qualified, so I can tell you that the sound of the doorbell ringing for the midwives’ arrival was the best sound I have heard in my life. To the second question asked by the hon. Member for Cheltenham, I will outline the steps the trust is taking to improve the situation. They include a new director of midwifery, an education and training midwife and a perinatal quality and governance lead. To improve retention, the new leadership has introduced a retire and return scheme and is holding monthly events for senior leadership to listen to staff and address their concerns. The trust has recruited 33 new midwifery starters since 2023, including from overseas. Ten midwives are due to start this month, with a further 10 expected in January. But there is still a gap. That is why the Aveta birthing unit and the postnatal beds at Stroud maternity will remain temporarily closed until they reach safe levels of staffing. The trust clearly felt that it could not continue those services without putting new mothers at risk, which is an impossible situation to be in. I am pleased that the birthing unit at Stroud remains open, but the other closures have had an impact on women, their families and the local community, as has been eloquently expressed by my hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester and mentioned by my hon. Friend the Member for Thornbury and Yate. The impact goes further afield to my own city of Bristol. In addition to those measures, the trust is developing new apprenticeship schemes; building partnerships with universities, including Worcester and Oxford Brookes; and launching a midwifery attraction campaign in the autumn. Although the trust has had positive feedback from last year’s new starters, I am pleased that it is carrying out regular assessments, as per the recommendations in the Ockenden review, to ensure that midwives have the right skills to serve the people of Gloucestershire. The turnover rate is now settling, and I know the hon. Member for Cheltenham and other colleagues will do everything they can to help convince midwives that his county is a great place to live and work. The passion for those units is very evident here today, which I am sure will be welcome to those trusts. I know from my career in the NHS that such changes take a long time. It is too soon to make an assessment until all the new midwives have started. However, we are not waiting for the CQC to do the rounds to ensure that the picture is improving. The local maternity and neonatal systems team and the regional NHS England team are meeting with the trust on a fortnightly basis to review progress. The trust’s monthly board reports will report on progress; I know hon. Members will be watching carefully. It is important to give the new team space to prove themselves. I am hopeful that we will see improvements in time. At a national level, whenever trusts and maternity units do not perform on our watch, we will steer them back to safer ground. That is why we are supporting Gloucestershire maternity services through the national maternity safety support programme. That means that the trust is supported by a maternity improvement adviser for midwifery and obstetrics, who helps the trust to embed the maternity improvement plan. I know that the hon. Member for Cheltenham and others will continue to hold the trust to account, until it is delivering for women in their constituencies. I am grateful to him for obtaining this debate and giving me the chance to put the Government’s position on the record. With regard to his third question, like many trusts in this position, the trust does have the budget for establishment; it is the recruitment and retention of midwives that is the issue. Some trusts do different things with incentives; I do not know whether this trust is particularly doing that. That might be something he would wish to pick up with the trust at another time. On more general maternity improvements, in September the CQC published a report that demonstrated how much the previous Government let down new mothers in this country. Lord Darzi’s report has shown that, despite some improvements, there is still a disgraceful inequality of outcomes for black and minority ethnic women, as we have heard again today. We will look at every recommendation in the CQC report, and if officials object to any of them, I expect to hear a very good reason why. There is ongoing work to improve maternity and neonatal services across England. The NHS put in place a three-year delivery plan to make maternity and neonatal care safer, fairer and more tailored to every new mother’s needs. I shall now discuss the Government’s wider ambition. Choice—which was mentioned today by my hon. Friend the Member for Stroud and the hon. Member for Thornbury and Yate—is for us absolutely a key part of maternity care. As the hon. Member for Winchester said, our NHS must listen to and work with women and families on how their care is planned and received, based on what matters to them. To get maternity care back on its feet, we need to train thousands more midwives as part of the NHS workforce plan, while encouraging experienced midwives to stay in the NHS. Many hon. Members, including the hon. Member for Cheltenham, spoke of recruiting midwives, with regard to morale and workload. That was also mentioned by the hon. Members for Tewkesbury (Cameron Thomas) and for Carshalton and Wallington (Bobby Dean). The NHS will deliver the people plan, giving a stronger focus to a modern, compassionate, inclusive culture, which absolutely has to be part of our forward look in the 10-year plan. We will ensure that trusts failing on maternity care are robustly supported into rapid improvement. We are setting an explicit target to close the black and Asian maternity mortality gap. NHS England is on the right track, boosting the workforce through training, apprenticeships, postgraduate conversion, return to midwifery programmes and international recruitment. I have been clear that the Government will build on those programmes, not replace them. Finally, I want to end by restating our unwavering commitment to maternity services across the nation, including in Gloucestershire. We are actively working to improve staffing levels and are planning for the future needs of Gloucestershire’s maternity services. I say to the constituents of the hon. Member for Cheltenham that I hear his concerns and completely understand them, and I will work with him to set this right. The Opposition spokesperson is an assiduous writer, and I have answered a number of her letters, but if I have not responded to particular points from the previous debate before recess, I apologise, and will ensure that that happens after this debate. She has raised important questions. In the constituency of the hon. Member for Cheltenham and in mine, women have had to bear the brunt of inaction for the past 14 years, but this Government will deliver for women, not just in the south-west but in the country as a whole.
7 Oct 2024 · NHS Performance: Darzi Investigation · Hansard source
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I thank all Members for their contributions to this debate. We should all be grateful to Lord Darzi for his rapid and comprehensive review, although we still do not seem to know at the end of this debate whether the Opposition agree with the diagnosis or not. Essentially, it is evidence of their record, and they do not like it. This has been a passionate debate with colleagues from all parts of the House addressing how 14 years of failure have damaged their constituencies, let down the people they represent and broken the NHS. Lord Darzi’s report is as breathtaking as it is distressing, whether it is discussing the chaos unleashed by Andrew Lansley’s top-down reorganisation, the plunge in productivity and patient satisfaction, the disproportionate impact of the pandemic compared with countries across the world or the failure to modernise ways of working. It beggars belief how the previous Government allowed that to happen on their watch. Behind every page of that report, we should remember the real-world suffering caused by the neglect. It is a record of missed opportunities and squandered potential. Those things are all the more galling for me, as someone who has worked in the NHS and who still cares passionately about its survival. In fact, the reorganisation was so bad that it led me to stand for Parliament. I would not be here today, were it not for Andrew Lansley. The House can make of that what they will. When I worked for the NHS under the previous Labour Government, I saw at first hand the power of politics to improve the system. I saw a health service delivering the shortest waiting times and highest patient satisfaction in history, and since then I have seen it decline in my constituency and the effect that has had on my constituents. When the system lets them down, they have no other options. They cannot afford to go private, they do not have the assets to sell and their families are in the same boat. Health inequalities and inequality of access led me to join the health service, and the Lansley reforms drove me to become an MP. That is why I will not rest until we have completed our health mission to restore the fundamental promise of our NHS: that it will be there for all our constituents when they need it. The charge sheet is too long for me to make too many comments on it. In the short time I have, I will address the maiden speeches in particular. I worked with my hon. Friend the Member for South Norfolk (Ben Goldsborough) in opposition. I was so delighted to hear that he had won the day after the election. He talked about the global reach of South Norfolk and in particular productivity at the University of East Anglia, which I went to as a student 40 years ago this week, astonishingly. It makes a huge contribution to the economy of South Norfolk, and I know that he will be a good champion. I wish him good luck on SEND and justice. South Norfolk is lucky to have him. The hon. Member for Esher and Walton (Monica Harding) gave a lovely history of her constituency. She moved us all with the tragic story of the death of her constituents’ 19-year-son. She has kept her promise to that mother already in her place today. My hon. Friend the Member for South West Norfolk (Terry Jermy) is a worthy successor to his predecessor. He rightly highlights poverty, particularly in rural areas, and he spoke so eloquently about his father, his care and sadly his death. That is an experience that many people will recognise from covid and will be moved by. I am pleased he is using that experience in this place. His dad and Councillor Thelma would be very proud of him. My hon. Friend the Member for Gloucester (Alex McIntyre) —I am delighted to have another new Labour Member in the south-west—did a great campaign while having a young family. His passion and pride for Gloucester shone through, whether that is the Romans’ military innovation or that Viennetta comes from Gloucester, which I did not know—shame on me. He wants to achieve for all the people in the rich diversity of Gloucester. The hon. Member for St Neots and Mid Cambridgeshire (Ian Sollom) is the first and longest-serving Member for his constituency, and long may that last. I look forward to his explaining black holes to us all. It is not a thing, but the hon. Member for Mid Dunbartonshire (Susan Murray) certainly wins the award for suited people coming to represent their constituents. She spoke movingly about her predecessor and the cost of caring for her partner. Finally, my hon. Friend the Member for Basingstoke (Luke Murphy) spoke movingly about his family’s hard work and dedication that led him to this place. Cromwell and Jane Austen would be very proud of his editing capabilities. There is an old Irish joke about somebody travelling down from the city to a wedding in the countryside. He cannot remember how to get there so asks a farmer for directions. The farmer says, “I wouldn’t start from here.” None of us wants to start from here, but this is where the last Government left us, with a broken NHS, a social care system on its knees and an economy failing its people. That is why early next year the Government will publish a 10-year plan setting out how we will deliver the three big shifts that will make the NHS fit for the future. As my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State said, the choice before us today is to reform or die. There are no quick fixes. But as Lord Darzi reminded us, the NHS’s “vital signs are strong”. We can tap into the immense reservoir of dedication and talent in our universities, life sciences sector and, above all, the NHS. Getting the NHS back on its feet will be a team effort. Working with patients and the public, alongside 1.5 million NHS staff, we will rebuild our public services, fix the foundations of our economy—
9 Sept 2024 · Medicines · Hansard source
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I beg to move, That the draft Human Medicines (Amendments Relating to Naloxone and Transfers of Functions) Regulations 2024, which were laid before this House on 29 July, be approved. I, too, congratulate you on your election, Madam Deputy Speaker; it really is a pleasure to see you in the Chair. The draft statutory instrument will amend the Human Medicines Regulations 2012 to expand access to naloxone: a lifesaving medication that reverses the effects of an overdose from opioid drugs. In addition, the SI will keep the regulations current by updating references to Public Health England and the Health and Social Care Board, following the dissolution of those bodies. Hon. Members will no doubt know of the devastating impact of illicit drugs. Drugs destroy lives, tear families apart and make our streets less safe. Almost 3,000 people died of drug misuse in England in 2022—the highest number since records began in 1993. Drug misuse deaths have doubled over the past 10 years, and people die from drug misuse at a tragically young age, often in their 40s. Almost half of drug misuse deaths in 2022 involved opiates such as heroin. These deaths are avoidable. Dedicated drug treatment services provide the path to recovery, and my Department is continuing to invest in improvements to local treatment services, which have faced significant cutbacks. We also know that over half the people struggling with opiate addiction are not engaged in treatment at all. That means that significant numbers of an incredibly vulnerable population are at increased risk of accidentally overdosing and dying. People who experience addiction often have multiple complex needs, and we know that there is a strong link between addiction and deprivation. The rate of drug misuse deaths in the most deprived areas of England is almost three times higher than in the least deprived. Nearly a third of people in treatment for drug or alcohol problems reportedly have a disability, around one in six have a housing problem, and around 70% have a mental health treatment need. Tackling this issue supports the Government’s health mission, ensuring that people can live longer, happier lives, as well as our collective efforts to break down barriers to opportunity and create a fairer society. Naloxone is a highly effective antidote against opiate overdose. It can be administered quickly and safely by anyone in an emergency, but currently exemptions in the human medicines regulations targeted at specific providers enable supply only by drug and alcohol treatment services, which limits the reach of this lifesaving medicine. Widening the statutory framework will mean that more services and professionals are able to supply this medication. That means easier access to it for people at risk and their loved ones. In short, the legislation will save lives. We are already seeing the benefits of professionals outside the health service, such as police officers, being able to administer naloxone. North Yorkshire police have already saved seven lives since April, when naloxone was rolled out across the force. The draft instrument proposes two key UK-wide changes to existing regulations. First, it will expand the list of services and professionals named in the regulations who are able to give out naloxone without a prescription. In short, that means that professionals such as registered nurses and probation officers will be able to provide take-home supplies of naloxone where appropriate, should they wish to do so. Secondly, we propose to establish national registration services across the whole of the United Kingdom. That will enable all other services and professionals who are unable to be named in the legislation, including housing and homelessness services, to register and procure naloxone, subject to the passage of this statutory instrument. I look forward to working with colleagues across the devolved Governments on this important issue; I thank them for their work to date, and their continued support. I reassure hon. Members that we are not compromising on safety with these changes. This is an extremely safe and effective measure, even when administered by a layperson with no prior experience. It has an effect only if the person has taken opioids, and is already widely used across the UK and internationally. We are taking steps to mitigate any, very limited, risks associated with wider access. We will provide updated guidance for services in scope, and set out robust requirements for training and safeguarding. The new powers are enabling but not mandatory. The intention is not to create new burdens for services, but to provide an opportunity for provision based on local need. I am confident in the support for the changes across sectors, which was evident in the responses to my Department’s consultation earlier this year, over 90% of which were in support. I recognise the long-standing calls for these changes among experts in this area. For instance, the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs is an independent expert body that advises the Government on drug-related issues in the UK. In 2022, it published a review of naloxone implementation that called for more work to widen access to the medication. Similarly, Dame Carol Black’s independent review of drugs also highlighted expansion as a vital harm-reduction measure. I pay tribute to Dame Carol for the work that she has done to drive improvements in drug treatment and recovery, and express my gratitude for her continued advice and expertise. The importance of this work only continues to increase as time goes on. Hon. Members may be aware of the growing threat posed by synthetic opioids. These synthetic drugs, such as nitazenes and fentanyl, are often more potent and more deadly. The Government are taking a range of steps to prevent the rise of these dangerous drugs in the UK, but the availability of naloxone will be vital to our ability to respond and save lives. Addiction is not a choice. It is often fuelled by wider issues, such as trauma and housing instability. This is a complex public health issue and must be tackled as such. We must change the narrative on addiction to one that is about preventing drug use, reducing harm and enabling recovery. The changes in the legislation are simple and low risk, but have the potential to save countless lives. On that basis, I commend the draft regulations to the House.
9 Sept 2024 · Medicines · Hansard source
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I understand that there are some concerns about that issue, and we will make sure that the hon. Member receives a full answer from my hon. Friend the public health Minister. In short, these changes will widen access to life-saving medicine. I am sure hon. Members will agree that any death from an illicit drug is tragic and preventable, so I am pleased that we are taking this step and that we have the support of the House this evening for reducing drug-related deaths. On that basis, I hope hon. Members will join me in supporting these important regulatory changes, which I commend to the House. Question put and agreed to. Resolved, That the draft Human Medicines (Amendments Relating to Naloxone and Transfers of Functions) Regulations 2024, which were laid before this House on 29 July, be approved.
9 Sept 2024 · Medicines · Hansard source
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This evening, I am standing in for my hon. Friend the public health Minister, who could not be here. I might offer to stand in again, such has been the rare outbreak of unanimity across this House. I know from my own experience in the sector that that is often the case with public health measures, as so much work is done in the background, and there is broad agreement on the need for prevention and the great work that has been done before. I thank Members, particularly the Opposition spokespeople, for their support this evening and their comments, which are testament to the work done by officials and by the previous Administration to get us to this point. The consultation was very well received. I support the comments of the Opposition spokesperson, the hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge (Dr Spencer), about recognising World Suicide Prevention Day. Suicide, particularly among men, is something that has affected most families—most of us, I think—and it has certainly affected many people in this House, so the hon. Member is right to raise those issues. He asked about training, and I can confirm that training and data reporting requirements will be attached to this measure. That training will be required to meet some broad objectives, including the safe administration of naloxone, safe storage, and how to train someone else to handle and administer it safely. Training on its use is already well established in most parts of the country alongside naloxone provision, and each product has its own established training set out by the manufacturer. I have heard the professional points that the hon. Member has raised, and if he has any further requirements, my hon. Friend the public health Minister would be happy to write to him. Other excellent points were made about keeping this issue under review, which we absolutely will be doing. The hon. Member for Brighton Pavilion (Siân Berry) made her points well, and they are now on the record. The Government will be looking to work on our prevention strategy across all Departments—including the Ministry of Justice, the Home Office, the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government, the Department for Work and Pensions, and the Department for Education—to ensure that we take a preventive, public health-led approach to this issue. I also thank the hon. Member for South Antrim (Robin Swann), who has brought his expertise in Northern Ireland into this House for this debate. I am sure this issue will come back before the House in the future.
4 Sept 2024 · Preventable Baby Loss · Hansard source
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It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Dowd, and to speak for the Government in this important and moving debate. I am grateful to the hon. Member for Ashfield (Lee Anderson) for raising this important issue. As my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South (Mrs Hodgson) said, it is the last taboo, and the hon. Member for Clacton (Nigel Farage) articulated well the difficulties that many people have in knowing what to say. The debate gives me the opportunity to put on the record my deepest sympathies to the bereaved families: thank you for making the decision to come here today. Others might be listening in on the Parliament channel. The decision to attend is brave, and I commend the hon. Member for Ashfield for giving voice to the moving and harrowing stories of Emma and Rob, Bianca Chapman, Amelia Bradley and Hayley Moore, about their babies, Olivia, Imiza and Theo. We know that preventable baby loss remains a serious issue every time such debates come before the House. Today, we have heard how many people have taken part in previous debates; I have listened in before. What little consolation they must be for parents and wider families who have lost a loved one, but I am always inspired. I hope that the families present today recognise that every Member of Parliament is also a human being, with their own experience and that of their families. The issue touches every family; as the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said, it stays with families for decades. Sharing such experiences is brave of hon. Members, but they have given voice to how important the issue is. Every baby’s death is tragic, but all the more devastating when parents are told that it could have been prevented. As we have heard, report after report has told us that this remains a serious issue in our health service, and that is backed up by the data. Two years ago, the Office for National Statistics found that almost 2,300 stillbirths were recorded in England and almost 1,700 neonatal deaths, a rate of 2.9 per 1,000 live births. In 2022, I welcomed the Ockenden review, as many did, but it made for harrowing reading. The Government’s position is that any preventable death is unacceptable. We are committed to ensuring that all baby deaths that can be prevented will be prevented. Donna Ockenden’s review shone a light on maternity staff too exhausted to do their jobs. It showed patterns of poor care, a lack of adequate training for staff, and failure in governance and leadership that led to widespread avoidable harm and death, and to shocking inequalities in maternity provision. Dr Bill Kirkup’s review of East Kent identified similar themes, but also showed that leadership and culture changes were needed. That is why this Government stood on a manifesto commitment to train thousands more midwives and to set an explicit target to close the black and Asian maternal mortality gap. There are a number of initiatives, some of which we have heard about today, and I will run through some of them. If I do not address some concerns expressed by hon. Members in my update, we will get be in touch with people, including the official Opposition—I commend the hon. Member for Sleaford and North Hykeham (Dr Johnson) on her experience in this area as a clinician as well as a spokesperson. The NHS put in place a three-year plan to deliver the reviews’ recommendations to make maternity and neonatal care safer, more tailored to every new mother’s needs, and more equitable. That includes the Saving Babies Lives care bundle, which is being rolled out to every trust. That provides maternity units with guidance and interventions to reduce stillbirths, neonatal brain injury, neonatal death and pre-term birth. That will need to be updated regularly, but I will confirm the details to the hon. Lady. The plan also includes initiatives to reduce inequalities. As we have heard, a serious cause for concern is the higher rate of stillbirths, neonatal deaths and pre-term births among babies from the black and Asian ethnic groups. Babies of black ethnicity are about twice as likely to be stillborn as babies of white ethnicity. That is unacceptable in modern Britain. We will not rest until outcomes are equally good for everyone in this country. We also know that women living in deprived areas, not least my own constituency, are more likely to suffer adverse outcomes. In 2022, the stillbirth rate per 1,000 births in the 10% most deprived areas in England was 5.0, or 389; in the 10% least deprived areas in England, the stillbirth rate was 3.7 or 155. All local maternity and neonatal systems have equity and equality action plans in place to tackle such inequalities. NHS England is investing £10 million every year to target the 10 most deprived areas of England. Wider work is also important. NHS Resolution’s maternity incentive scheme is improving maternity safety by rewarding NHS trusts that demonstrate that they are taking concrete steps to improve the quality of care for women, families and newborns. The National Institute for Health and Care Research has commissioned studies into how we can prevent pre-term births and improve care for mothers and babies. This year it launched a £50 million funding call, challenging researchers and policymakers to come up with new ways of tackling maternity inequalities and poor pregnancy outcomes. There are ongoing initiatives to ensure that lessons are learned from every individual tragic event and to prevent similar events from happening in the future. All hospitals already carry out internal perinatal mortality reviews, which create reports that aim to provide answers for bereaved parents about why their baby died. They also help hospitals to improve care and ensure they try to learn something from every tragedy, wherever it happens. The maternity and newborn safety investigations programme conducts independent investigations of early neonatal deaths, intrapartum stillbirths and severe brain injury in babies following labour. All trusts are required to tell the programme about these incidents. It will then carry out an independent investigation and make safety recommendations to improve maternity services. Coroners are also required to investigate deaths that are violent, unnatural or of unknown cause, although their remit excludes stillbirths; but that should leave no stone unturned when it comes to uncovering the cause of death, including an inquest where appropriate. Additionally, as of June 2024, I am assured that all NHS trusts have signed up to the national bereavement care pathway, which many hon. Members have raised today. The existing measures, taken together, are helping to achieve improvements; we have already heard about some of the positives. Since 2010, the neonatal mortality rate has decreased by 25% for babies with at least 24 weeks’ completed gestation, the stillbirth rate in England has decreased by 23%, and the overall rate of brain injuries occurring during or soon after birth fell by 2%. But we know, and have heard so movingly today, that more must be done. People rightly expect assurances that lessons will be learned and that things that went wrong are not repeated. As hon. Members have pointed out, the sad truth is that we are likely to be debating these issues in the future, when the CQC releases its next report on maternity inspections and when Donna Ockenden completes her investigation into Nottingham. I expect to be speaking with hon. Members again about this issue, and my noble Friend Baroness Merron, Minister for Patient Safety, Women’s Health and Mental Health, will be following that very closely. Many of the issues identified locally are being repeated across the country, so I am clear that national leadership is needed. The Government will be honest about the challenges facing the health service and are serious about tackling them. I will listen to women and their families and do everything I can as a Minister to help deliver safer and fairer maternity and neonatal services for women and their babies. I really commend hon. Members who have shared their experiences today— particularly new Members; I do not think I would have been able to do that as a new Member of Parliament. My hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South spoke very honestly about how long it took for her to do that. That was valuable. It may not be for me to say as Government Minister, but I commend the work that my hon. Friend the Member for Washington and Gateshead South and other colleagues across parties have done in the APPG on baby loss. They have raised these issues and worked with Government Ministers, which is really important as parliamentarians. I hope that is reassuring to families here today. That work will hopefully be continued by parliamentarians across the House. Perhaps that will be an outcome of the issue being raised today, so early in this Parliament. We need to listen to these women and their babies. We need to make sure that we have the midwives and other staff necessary to keep women and their babies safe. Before I finish, I should say that if I have missed anything, hon. Members should please get in touch. I say to my hon. Friend the Member for Sheffield Hallam (Olivia Blake) that we welcome the Tommy’s miscarriage pilot, and my ministerial colleague will be looking closely at those recommendations. As a new Government, we want to end sticking-plaster politics; that means real and lasting change in the health service. That will take time, but we will build a better future for women in this country. That includes by making sure that all baby deaths that can be prevented will be prevented.

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