Clause 37 - Assistance and support
Health Bill
5:00 pm
Andrew Murrison (Shadow Minister, Health; Westbury, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman has made several interesting points. I am not too clear about how relevant they are to the clause; nevertheless, they were well made. He is absolutely correct about referral by GPs to optometrists and optometrists to specialists. On the back of his comments, does the Minister feel that the seven clauses before us will make the process easier? Were it to be made easier, as it is in Scotland without the intervention of such clauses, we would be doing our constituents a great favour because it would make life a lot easier for them. We would be using the ophthalmic professions a lot better, with a consequent increase in job satisfaction for them in feeling that their services, skills and expertise were being adequately utilised. Also, probably equally important, we would save the system a great deal of resources.
I gave the example of my experience of having to take my daughter to casualty in Salisbury to have a foreign body removed. That is the kind of thing that I would probably expect that enhanced services might cover. It would have been far more convenient for me to nip down to Warminster and have the thing removed on the high street, as I am sure would have been possible. We have not really heard from the Minister how she feels that the seven clauses will assist people such as me and my daughter in the removal of a foreign body on a Saturday morning.
What do we mean by assistance and support? I do not understand what that means. I confess to the Minister that I have not ploughed through section 28Y of the 1977 Act. Perhaps I should have done so and if I had perhaps I would not need to ask the question, but as I have not it would be helpful if she could tell me what we mean by assistance and support in that context. It sounds like a good thing, so I am certainly not minded to oppose it, but the explanatory note simply does not make that meaning clear and it is not clear in the Bill. Some explanation from the Minister would be most welcome.