My Lords, I support Amendment 264, in the name of the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, to which I have added my name. In so doing, I remind noble Lords of my own interests, particularly as a fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of England, a fellow of the Royal College of Physicians of London and an honorary fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh.
This is a critical amendment, as the noble Lord, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath, indicated, strongly supported by my noble friend Lord Patel. Currently, the National Health Service (Appointment of Consultants) Regulations 1996, with additional guidance provided by the department in 2005, restricts membership of advisory appointments committees for consultants to certain royal colleges, as we have heard with the appointment of surgeons by the Royal College of Surgeons of England alone—and, indeed, for physicians by the Royal College of Physicians of London. This is an anomaly. The medical royal colleges across the United Kingdom are recognised in terms of the postgraduate training that they are able to supervise, the continuing professional development they are able to provide and, indeed, collaborate with regard to postgraduate examination which is required for provision of the certificate for the completion of specialist training. However, when it comes to the question of consultant appointment, there is this restriction.
Noble Lords might ask why it is important that this matter be dealt with. The provision by a medical royal college of a professional member to serve as part of the appointment process for a new consultant is critical. Those representatives provide expertise and insight with regard to the nature of the job description, the requirements for the individual post, and the assessment of individual candidates as part of the selection process on the day.
4.45 pm
The regulations apply only to non-foundation trusts, but guidance provided in 2005 recommends that NHS foundation trusts follow exactly the same process and involve representatives on these advisory appointments committees. In addition, the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges has strongly encouraged that all consultant appointments follow these regulations and guidance. This means that, when it comes to the question of consultant appointment, only representatives nominated by the Royal College of Surgeons of England can serve.
This is creating a bottleneck in terms of appointment of consultants, and this is happening at a critical moment, when the NHS must look to make more and more consultant appointments to meet the increasing demands we are seeing—particularly with regard to long elective waiting lists—that attend surgical specialties and subspecialties in particular.
It is possible that NHS foundation trusts might take the view that this bureaucratic hurdle to finding members for advisory appointments committees from the royal colleges could easily be overcome by ignoring the guidance. Then, we would lose this critical element of expert professional input into the appointment of future consultants. That would really be a very unfortunate situation.
As we have heard from the noble Lords, Lord Hunt of Kings Heath and Lord Patel, this is a very easy issue to address. There is no objection, and it would send a very powerful signal, with regard not only to the importance of professional participation in the appointment of future consultants but to the recognition that, although health is a devolved matter, we recognise the United Kingdom as a single entity in so many questions for the provision of health and, in particular, the training and development of healthcare professionals and their ability to work across our entire country.