Parliamentary Debates (Hansard)
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Tuesday Volume 501 24 November 2009 No. 4 HOUSE OF COMMONS OFFICIAL REPORT PARLIAMENTARY DEBATES (HANSARD) Tuesday 24 November 2009 £5·00 © Parliamentary Copyright House of Commons 2009 This publication may be reproduced under the terms of the Parliamentary Click-Use Licence, available online through the Office of Public Sector Information website at www.opsi.gov.uk/click-use/ Enquiries to the Office of Public Sector Information, Kew, Richmond, Surrey TW9 4DU; e-mail: [email protected] 381 24 NOVEMBER 2009 382 Andy Burnham: My right hon. Friend the Chairman House of Commons of the Select Committee is right to say that the outstanding progress the NHS has made on waiting times in the past decade should never be lost. We should lock in that Tuesday 24 November 2009 progress and the NHS should not slip back below those standards. The patients charter published on 3 March The House met at half-past Two o’clock 1995 gave an 18-month guaranteed waiting time for in-patient treatment. That is the measure of how far the national health service has come in recent times. I PRAYERS expect patients to endorse the proposal on that new right, but the NHS constitution will need to be updated in line with public expectations about the national [MR.SPEAKER in the Chair] health service. Norman Lamb (North Norfolk) (LD): The draft NHS constitution includes a right to drugs approved by the Oral Answers to Questions National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, yet we are witnessing a growing crisis with patients unable to get hold of vital drugs for breast cancer, epilepsy and many other conditions. There is a long list HEALTH of drugs that are currently unavailable because people are exporting them and profiting from the exchange rate. Is this not a despicable trade? What are the Government The Secretary of State was asked— doing to stop it? Andy Burnham: I understand the concerns that the NHS Constitution hon. Gentleman expresses about parallel exports. The medicine supply chain is crucial and we are taking steps 1. Mr. Mark Lancaster (North-East Milton Keynes) in the Department to guarantee the security of crucial (Con): What recent assessment he has made of the medicines. He mentions the right in the constitution to effectiveness of the NHS constitution; and if he will “treatments...recommended by NICE...ifyourdoctor says make a statement. [300139] they are clinically appropriate for you.” We believe that that is an important right for patients. The Secretary of State for Health (Andy Burnham): Obviously NICE has a difficult job to do in judging the The NHS constitution was based on extensive consultation cost-effectiveness of treatments, but we think it is the and has widespread support. It gives real power to right guarantee to make so that, just as we will not see patients by describing their rights. The Health Act 2009 waiting times slip back, there will never be a return, gives the constitution its legal underpinning and requires under this Government at least, to the postcode prescribing a report on its effectiveness to be published every three that we saw in the 1990s. years. Norman Lamb: The right hon. Gentleman is right Mr. Lancaster: Last month Milton Keynes hospital that there should be an entitlement, yet every day drug acquiesced to the demands of a pregnant woman by companies are reporting 300 to 500 calls from people providing an all-white staff for the delivery of her baby. who cannot get hold of vital medicines. I have a letter Does the Secretary of State think that this was the that has been circulating to community pharmacists; it correct decision by the hospital, or can we sometimes includes a price list, with very attractive offers to pharmacists put patients’ wishes too much to the fore in thinking of to buy their drugs for export, thereby denying patients hospitals’ actions? in this country vital drugs. What are the Government doing to stop this unethical practice? Andy Burnham: I cannot be alone in finding uncomfortable the situation that the hon. Gentleman Andy Burnham: On Friday, the Minister of State, my describes. I should have thought that it was so for the right hon. and learned Friend the Member for North NHS staff who were on the receiving end of such a Warwickshire (Mr. O’Brien), published clear guidance request. I know that the trust concerned is conducting to primary care trusts. The issues that the hon. Gentleman an investigation into the request and its handling. I raises are crucial. It is vital that patients have access to shall be happy to update him when further information the medicines that they need. We are taking a range of is available. steps to secure the medicines supply chain, but I understand the points that he is raising. We have taken action and I Mr. Kevin Barron (Rother Valley) (Lab): Does my will continue to work with him to ensure that there is no right hon. Friend expect that when the patient consultation problem in the supply of medicines. on the new constitution has been completed, the wait of 18 weeks or less for a referral from a GP to a consultant Keith Vaz (Leicester, East) (Lab): I declare an interest or the two-week wait for GP referral for somebody as someone who suffers from type-2 diabetes. Will suspected of having cancer will be one of the most my right hon. Friend assure the House that the NHS popular things that has happened in the national health constitution will properly protect those who have diabetes service in our lifetime? Will he make sure that that is by giving them an assessment to determine whether reinforced so that people will expect it for many years they have the illness? It is better to prevent than to treat to come? once somebody has an illness. 383 Oral Answers24 NOVEMBER 2009 Oral Answers 384 Andy Burnham: I agree entirely that the challenge for Derek Twigg (Halton) (Lab): About 10 or 12 years the national health service is to become truly preventive—to ago, I regularly had complaints from constituents who become a national health service, with the word “health” were waiting 18 months, two years and, in some cases, underlined. My right hon. Friend will know that as well three years for an operation. On the patient guarantee, as consulting on the proposed maximum waiting times, it is absolutely right that we reaffirm our commitment we are asking the public whether people aged between to waiting list times, and we should laud what we have 40 and 74 should have a right to an NHS health check done to reduce them, but will my right hon. Friend every five years. That would take the NHS into new similarly guarantee that we will continue to press as territory. It would take it squarely into preventive territory, hard as we can to get waiting lists down? and I look forward to hearing whether he and his constituents think that is the right step to take. Andy Burnham: I agree entirely with my hon. Friend, and the whole thrust of the constitution is to translate Mr. Andrew Lansley (South Cambridgeshire) (Con): those targets into permanent rights so that there is no The NHS constitution says that patients should have slipping back. My father has just had a heart bypass access to NICE-approved drugs. What does it offer a operation, and he was treated within a matter of weeks. patient with primary liver cancer, for example, who has I looked at the patients charter that the Conservative only one drug as an option for treatment and is told party introduced in 1995, and there was a 12-month that the NHS will not provide it? standard for an artery bypass graft. How many unlucky people died on those waiting lists for heart bypass Andy Burnham: I described the right very clearly in operations? That is a world away, and I assure my hon. my answer to the hon. Member for North Norfolk Friend that under this Labour Government we will (Norman Lamb): it is a right to drugs as approved by never go back to such a situation in the national health NICE. The hon. Member for South Cambridgeshire service, with people dying waiting for hospital treatment. (Mr. Lansley) should accept—indeed, I think I have heard him say before—that NICE has a very difficult job to do in judging the cost-effectiveness of new treatments. NHS Dentistry I do not want to return to a situation in which people have different access to drugs and treatments according 2. Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con): What recent to where they live. NICE brought order to the system, assessment he has made of the adequacy of NHS and has an international reputation for rigour in the dental provision; and if he will make a statement. assessment of new medicines. I am proud of the difficult [300140] job that it does, and when it has made its deliberations, that right carries its recommendations to patients 6. Mr. Edward Vaizey (Wantage) (Con): What recent throughout the country. assessment he has made of the adequacy of NHS dental provision. [300144] Mr. Lansley: The Secretary of State did not answer my question, but the answer that he should have given, The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health according to his view, is that the constitution offers (Ann Keen): More than 27.6 million people saw an NHS patients in those circumstances nothing—they will not dentist in the 24 months ending June 2009. That is have access to that drug.