Contributions
1,850 recent contributions in Hansard
HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageAs part of the joint NHS England and NHS Improvement and DHSC bureaucracy review—there is such a thing—we have been working across government to reduce unnecessary bureaucratic…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseI thank my noble friend for his question and note his concerns. However, I think we should look at this in two ways: there is medicinal cannabis and there is recreational…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseWhat I would say is that it is left up to the doctors, who are able to ask for it to be prescribed on the NHS. In some cases, that has clearly not been accepted and that is why…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseThe department has been reviewing the Hodges review and has been looking at the method of data collection. At the moment, I cannot comment on the significance of the statistics in…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageI assure the noble Lord that the Government are doing lots of things. Not only are we listening but we are looking at potential solutions and discussing them with the relevant…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseYes, but I should start by saying that I have been warned a number of times that it is inappropriate for Ministers to tell doctors and clinicians what they can prescribe. In…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseFirst, I thank the noble Baroness for meeting with my colleague, my noble friend Lady Penn, yesterday. When I became a Minister, the Permanent Sec recognised a potential conflict…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageThere are a number of reasons why some GPs and other health professionals prefer to work part-time as opposed to full-time. Many people, especially given the stresses of the…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageI thank the noble Lord for his question, but also pay tribute to his commitment to tackling racism in our society. We know that there are countries that train more people than…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageMy noble friend makes a very important point, and she referred continually throughout the passage of the Health and Care Act to practices in rural areas. We have looked at the…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageThe Government recognise that growing the GP workforce is challenging, particularly in light of pressures from the pandemic. There are over 1,400 more full-time equivalent doctors…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageThe noble Lord makes the very important point that GP practices are evolving. Some are moving premises; some are merging in larger premises; some are moving into primary care…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageI thank the noble Lord for that question, but I should explain to him that I have been warned for exceeding my powers, as it were, in the past. I think setting up a Select…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseThe noble Baroness raises an important point about working with the importer of those medicines. The MHRA is exceptionally continuing to allow those medicines and is hoping to…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseThe noble Lord makes a very important point: whatever our personal views, we must distinguish between recreational and medicinal uses of cannabis. We know from observations and…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseThese are left to clinical decisions, and it is up to individual doctors. Some doctors believe that the evidence is not there to prescribe it; other doctors believe that it is…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseI do not know how to respond to that. All I will say to the noble Baroness is that nothing could be further from the truth. This is clearly an issue based on medicinal cannabis.…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseThe Government share the aim of NHS funding for licensed medicines that have proved safe and effective, rather than patients paying private subscriptions for unlicensed products…12 Jul 2022HANSARDCannabis: Medicinal UseIn simple terms, I completely agree. There should be a way around this and I will take this back to the department. In fact, I was quite provocative when I was getting advice on…12 Jul 2022HANSARDGeneral Practitioners: ShortageThe noble Baroness is absolutely right. We know that, for many people, their first entry into the system—their portal, if you like—is trying to get an appointment with their GP.…12 Jul 2022