Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, since being introduced to the House in July, I have had the privilege of spending time in this Chamber listening to debates and observing to my great relief the supportive way in which the House conducts its business, welcomes its new Members and shows respect and tolerance for all, or most, contributions. I want to echo noble Lords who have made their maiden speeches by expressing...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I, too, begin by paying tribute to my noble friend Lord Morris of Manchester, for his tenacious and tireless work in campaigning on the issue before the House today. Indeed, no one reading back through the reports of the debates on the Bill in its previous passage to Third Reading in the House, as I have done in preparing for today's debate, can fail to admire and be very humbled by...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lady Ford for initiating the debate and, like others, pay tribute to the tireless work she has undertaken on behalf of people with epilepsy, particularly as president of Epilepsy Action. We are fortunate to have present and speaking in the debate noble Lords who have made significant contributions to highlighting this issue and to campaigning to address...
Baroness Wheeler: To ask Her Majesty's Government what is their assessment of the impact of minimum pricing policy on the level of alcohol-related conditions and admissions to hospital.
Baroness Wheeler: I thank the Minister for his response. However, two leading advisers from the Department of Health's own network of experts recently wrote in the Lancet that the Government, "lacks clear aspiration to reduce the impact of cheap, readily available, and heavily marketed alcohol on individuals and on society". They estimate that failure to tackle drink-related problems could cost 250,000 lives...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I, too, welcome the work being undertaken by the EHRC on this vital issue. We know that there are substantial problems with commissioning and standards of care delivery. For example, many local agency contracts do not provide staff with travelling time between visits, which greatly adds to the pressures on them. Stories of older people even being catheterised to avoid the costs of...
Baroness Wheeler: To ask Her Majesty's Government what actions they will take to address geographic variations in stroke care identified by the Royal College of Physicians and detailed in the National Stroke Audit Report 2010.
Baroness Wheeler: I thank the Minister for his response and his recognition of the tremendous progress that has been made in the past three years with thenational stroke strategy. I am sure that he agrees that progress has been most marked where strategic health authorities have provided strong leadership to drive forward strategy. With their abolition, how will the new system, through the subnational elements...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, this is an important debate. It is the first opportunity for the House to discuss the NHS following the First Reading of the Health and Social Care Bill last week. It takes place in the context of the continuing debate, controversy and deep unease over key aspects of the Bill, its incoherence and complexity even in this, its fourth iteration. When the Future Forum report was...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, this has been an excellent debate. I thank all noble Lords for their contributions, particularly the update from the noble Baroness, Lady Jolly, on the Liberal Democrat conference programme. As noble Lords have said, this is a timely debate; it is a precursor, an overture or a limbering-up for the debates that we are about to have. I am sure that we are all looking forward to that...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, in this marathon of debates, I want to focus my attention on two of the key issues that I will be leading for on behalf of the Front Bench. These arise from Part 5 of the Bill, and it is clear from the debate so far that they are matters which will absorb much of your Lordships' attention in the coming weeks. First, I refer to the issue of how patients' voice and involvement can be...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I, too, thank my noble friend Lady Prosser for securing this debate. With her considerable experience of industrial relations across the private, manufacturing and public sectors, there are few in the House better able to provide us with the broad-sweep perspective that we need in trying to address and tackle these vital issues. I want to focus my comments today on the importance of...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, the hour is indeed late and I have done my best to cut back on bits of my speech. On behalf of the opposition Front Bench, I commend these amendments for beginning the process of retipping the balance of the Bill from its current predominance of measures dealing with NHS structures, governance and competition. Today's amendments start to explore ways of addressing in the Bill the...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I begin by paying tribute to the excellent work of the charities, Action against Medical Accidents, National Voices and the National Association of LINks Members on this important issue. I also thank the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, and other noble Lords who have supported and sponsored the amendment and have spoken so forcefully in favour of it. They have put forward the strong...
Baroness Wheeler: Perhaps I may ask the same question about clinical commissioning groups and GP contracts.
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I am pleased to move this important amendment, supported by my noble friends Lady Thornton and Lord Hunt. The amendment would provide some much-needed morale and security at a time of great upheaval for NHS staff. In turn, it would reassure patients that the morale of those treating or caring for them will not impact on the quality of care they receive. Let us just imagine how NHS...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I thank the Minister and other noble Lords who contributed to the debate, particularly my noble friend Lord MacKenzie for his reminder to us of the history of the establishment of the pay review bodies and the contribution that they have made, particularly to improving pay and industrial relations in the NHS. I also thank my noble friend Lord Rooker for a number of comments that he...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I am pleased to speak on this group of amendments, in particular on Amendments 143A and 143B, on behalf of my noble friends Lady Thornton and Lord Hunt. I am also speaking to the clause stand part debate on Clause 275, which relates to the abolition of the National Patient Safety Agency. A critical function of the NHS Commissioning Board is to improve the quality of services and...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I start by saying that I was not one of the ones who beat up the noble Lord, Lord Patel, over grouping issues, although it was extremely frustrating to have them appear and disappear all the time. Anyway, we now have our list and I am speaking to that. I am pleased to support the amendments in the group, which have two important aims. First, to ensure that HealthWatch England and...
Baroness Wheeler: My Lords, I will speak briefly to my Amendment 135B. Since the Future Forum report, there is a renewed focus on integration in the Bill, and we welcome that. However, as a number of noble Lords pointed out at Second Reading, there is a need to define what we mean by integration. Government amendments largely reinforce the benefits of integration to the NHS rather than looking at the system...