Lord Walton of Detchant: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether appropriate treatment for patients with plasma disorders such as haemophilia and primary immunodeficiency, as provided for under the statutory scheme for branded medicines, will continue to be provided following the review of that scheme by the Department of Health.
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, is the Minister satisfied that the individuals chosen to assess the nature and significance of the disability of disabled individuals are properly qualified and trained to carry out such assessments, and that in doing so they employ well-defined and reproducible criteria?
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, the whiplash phenomenon is thought to occur usually when a vehicle is struck heavily from behind, with the result that the passenger or driver in the vehicle that is hit has a sharp flexion of the neck followed by a sharp hyperextension. If it happens that the individual in question already has disc degeneration in the neck, there is no doubt at all that this may on occasions result...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, I declare an interest as in 1950 I was elected chairman of the BMA’s Registrars Group, the predecessor of the present Junior Doctors Committee. I express the fervent hope that the current negotiations between the BMA and the Government will quickly be concluded to the satisfaction of both parties. In my view and in the view of many doctors it is a matter of considerable concern...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, is the Minister aware that regional airports in the United Kingdom such as Newcastle, which is expanding and becoming much busier, are expressing serious concern about the adverse effect on their activities of the lack of capacity in the south-east? Is the Minister absolutely confident that a new runway will be built, or is this beginning to look increasingly like a figment of the...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, my former medical colleagues in Newcastle upon Tyne, including several distinguished hepatologists are gravely concerned by the increasing incidence of alcohol- induced liver disease in young people. The problem is that in Newcastle—in the centre of the city and on the quayside—many organisations sell what are called, “cheap shots” with a very high alcohol content. Surely...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, one of the great advantages of the pneumococcal vaccination programme is that it is widely believed that a single injection gives lifelong protection—or at least substantially lifelong protection—against pneumococcal pneumonia and pneumococcal meningitis. Is the Minister satisfied that that is still sufficient?
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, is the Minister aware that the poliomyelitis virus attacks the nerve cells in the brain stem and spinal cord which give origin to the nerves that control the movement of the muscles, and, hence, that if these cells are killed, the result is paralysis of the relevant muscles? Several authorities believe that in an acute attack of poliomyelitis, certain nerve cells are damaged but...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, I am not the only doctor to have expressed some reservations when the Health and Social Care Act decided to transfer funding for public health from the National Health Service to the local authorities. Do the Government now regret that decision in the light of the problems highlighted in the Question—particularly at a time when public health is facing enormous challenges, not...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, I declare an interest in that for many years I have been a member of the ALCS—the Authors’ Licensing and Collecting Society—from which I receive minuscule sums about twice a year when people, in their wisdom, decide either to borrow or to photocopy from any of my published works. Many libraries have lost their paid staff and are staffed wholly by volunteers. Can the Minister...
Lord Walton of Detchant: Can the Minister say what qualifications are now required of doctors who are recruited to work in prisons? Can he further say what proportion of those who are now employed to work in prisons have had formal psychiatric training?
Lord Walton of Detchant: Is the Minister aware that, in 2000, your Lordships’ Select Committee on Science and Technology, of which I was then a member, conducted a major investigation into the potential medical benefits of cannabis preparations and cannabis itself. We were satisfied that smoking cannabis was just as dangerous in causing cancer as smoking tobacco, if not more so. Nevertheless, we received...
Lord Walton of Detchant: As a small boy in a mining village in County Durham, where my father was a schoolteacher, I was introduced to Woodbines at the age of 11 and started to smoke intermittently but frequently. When I went to medical school, I am horrified to tell your Lordships that we were advised by our teachers to smoke in the dissecting room to remove the smell of the carcasses which we were dissecting. The...
Lord Walton of Detchant: Would the Minister accept that NICE is faced with an extremely difficult problem in continually having to consider the efficacy and affordability of new cancer drugs as they emerge in a National Health Service under financial constraint? Would he also accept that another major problem is emerging in relation to the orphan and ultra-orphan drugs now coming on stream for the treatment of rare...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, last week I had the privilege of attending a symposium, or reception, for what was called Rare Disease Day, sponsored by the International Rare Diseases Research Consortium and various other bodies. The Minister made a useful and helpful contribution, as indeed did a member of the staff of NHS England. As the noble Lord, Lord Turnberg, to whom I am very grateful for introducing this...
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, in light of the alarming increase in type 2 diabetes, which is closely related to the incidence of obesity, what advice are the Government giving to the population at large about the dangers of overeating? When I was in clinical practice I used to advise my overweight patients to take a large dose of will power three times a day with meals.
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, at the outset, I have to declare two interests. First, I am the honorary life president of Muscular Dystrophy UK, which, along with the Wellcome Trust and other organisations, has been sponsoring and funding some of this research. Secondly, I have to say that I have an avuncular interest in the department in Newcastle upon Tyne, because Professor Douglas Turnbull, who now holds the...
Lord Walton of Detchant: To ask Her Majesty’s Government why the acute adult dermatology service at Nottingham University Hospital is to be closed; and whether they have assessed the effect that that decision will have upon patients in the area affected by skin diseases.
Lord Walton of Detchant: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what effect they consider the loss of six consultant dermatologists in Nottingham will have upon direct services to the local community and the training of junior doctors and medical students.
Lord Walton of Detchant: My Lords, I express the thanks of everyone who has worked in the National Health Service for this extremely important and compelling report. Is the Minister in a position yet to say anything about the terms of reference of those who will be the local whistleblowing guardians, what kind of qualifications they will be expected to hold and who will employ them? I take it that the national...