Clause 6
Mental Health Bill [Lords]
11:45 am
Rosie Winterton (Minister of State (Health Services), Department of Health; Doncaster Central, Labour)
My hon. Friend is absolutely right. That is the position that we have been trying to get to via the changes that we have made by generally developing roles among professionals. I am thinking particularly of nurse consultants, whose role did not exist in 1983. Today, a nurse consultant could be responsible for a 14-bed in-patient rehabilitation unit, teaching, providing clinical leadership and conducting research. Nurses, occupational therapists and psychologists can manage multidisciplinary teams or in-patient wards, or they can provide clinical care for a patient. Social workers can often be care co-ordinators.
When we are talking about the Government’s proposal regarding responsible clinicians, I want to be absolutely clear that only highly qualified and experienced mental health professionals will be able to become approved to become responsible clinicians. It is worth reminding ourselves of the type of people whom we are talking about. A disturbing attitude seems to have evolved both in the other place and among Opposition Members about the proposed changes—I presume that Opposition Members will be supporting them today—around the view that we somehow have to revert to a situation in which doctors take all the decisions. After all the work that has been put in, in conjunction not only with the Royal College of Psychiatrists, but with the other royal colleges and professionals working in the field, there is an attitude that they cannot be trusted to make such decisions. There is a real problem about turning the clock back. We are trying to achieve new ways of working, which we have spent many years developing, but the amendments inserted in the House of Lords with the support of the Opposition turn the clock back to a unacceptable state of affairs for those professionals, who, frankly, feel that they have been slapped in the face.