Health Bill [HL]

I very much support the noble Earl, Lord Howe, on specialised services. I declare an interest as someone with a spinal injury. I have Amendment 126, which relates to services for spinal injury patients, which are in an absolute crisis situation at the moment because there are not enough beds. The specialised services include those with rare conditions, and there are many of them. There are rare cancers, rare neurological conditions, rare heart conditions, rare muscular conditions and rare conditions in children—and there are many others. They sometimes have to travel for miles to get the services they need. Many of them are on orphan drugs. All this can deal with the commissioning of services, which is becoming exceedingly difficult. For example, some of these patients have a problem with borders. A patient who lived in Wales, one mile from the orthopaedic hospital in Oswestry, was not allowed to be sent there; he had to go to Cardiff. Think of the effect of that on his family, travelling down to Cardiff. That is an example of the unnecessary difficulties they face. I hope that the Minister, with all his experience, will look at this. It entails NICE, orphan drugs and specialised services. It is very important. And, of course, I support our carers; as has been said, they are vital.