My hon. Friend makes a good point. Principally, there are issues with funding and complexity. The Bill fails to recognise the science and the issues that a vast, sprawling database might cause. My hon. Friend the Member for Daventry referred to the desirability of the public being able to access a database and gave the example of male pattern baldness. There would be vast profits to be made by the quackery industry from male pattern baldness products. I envisage a vast, sprawling database of anecdotal treatments, and I am afraid it would act as free advertising for the quacks of this world. It is an invitation to quackery.
I started in medicine in the late ’80s and worked for a while in paediatrics. The prognosis for children with leukaemia was grim, but today most of the children diagnosed with the same conditions will survive and
thrive, not because of access to a vast, sprawling database of unconnected, anecdotal treatments but because of the meticulous progress of medical research, whereby with thousands of people we compare existing treatments with innovative treatments and find out which are genuinely the best. Any single anecdotal treatment might be effective in one single patient, but that does not tell us whether, when applied to a population, it is better or not.
Another problem with the Bill is the danger that it would undermine medical research. In effect, it would give private clinics the opportunity to offer anecdotal treatments as a way of bypassing clinical trials. When individuals, and particularly parents, are desperate because they have a dreadful diagnosis, they are at their most vulnerable to the claims of individuals who say, for example, “Look at the database and see how it worked for Mr Smith.” They might be lured into thinking that was the best way forward. Someone in a very vulnerable place might be lured into not taking part in a clinical trial by the siren call of an anecdotal treatment recorded on a publicly accessible database. I am afraid that the Bill would undermine research, and that is why the vast majority of bodies are very unhappy about it.
My hon. Friend should reflect on all the concerns that have been expressed about the Bill, and think about how science moves us forward. We progress not by a series of anecdotal treatments but through a solid research community.
We need greater access to clinical trials. The searchable database set up by the National Institute for Health Research is a welcome step forward, but it is rather clunky. Patients need to be able to see very clearly what trials are available and be able to take part in them. There is progress, people are surviving today with treatments based on clinical trials that may have taken place 10 years ago and many go on themselves to take part in clinical trials that will benefit future generations. It is absolutely vital that we continue to support this approach.