UK Parliament / Open data

Health and Care Bill

My Lords, I thank noble Lords for their many expert and very informative contributions. It has been a fascinating debate on a number of issues.

On specialised care services and rare diseases, I note the Minister’s comments and thank him for some of his reassurances, but there were some issues that he did not cover, particularly in relation to my noble friend’s Amendment 178. However, I welcome the dialogue that is taking place on these issues, and the recognition of their complexity, and am very hopeful that that will continue. We will take stock to see if anything else needs to come back on Report. I also thank my noble friend Lady Pitkeathley for her support on this issue.

In the general debate, noble Lords will, I am sure, follow up on the points that they made, as the noble Lord, Lord Patel, just did. I thought the contributions of my noble friend Lord Hunt and the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, on the hospital food situation, really drove home the importance of this issue. We must make progress on it and move forward.

On the title “nurse”, strong support was expected and we certainly got it from across the House. I hope that progress can be made. The issue will not go away, as the Minister knows, and neither will the determination of my noble friend Lord Hunt to pursue the issue of the availability of T3 for thyroid patients. We hope that progress can be made on that, because again it is a situation that a must be addressed.

The noble Baronesses, Lady Masham and Lady Brinton, and other noble Lords made valuable points on the vital need for a licensing regime for non-surgical cosmetic procedures, again underlining the need for urgent, step-by-step progress, and demonstrating in particular why the current situation is unacceptable. Progress can be made. As the noble Lord, Lord Lansley, pointed out, it was seen in the recent Private Members’ Bill on Botox fillers. We need progress to be made, and steadily.

Finally, on the reference to when the review of the regulatory system will be completed—the noble Baroness, Lady Walmsley, also raised this—the issue was about timescales. We know there is a review. We are told that KPMG is on the case and has delivered its report, but we need timescales and action as soon as possible.

With those comments, I beg leave to withdraw my amendment.

About this proceeding contribution

Reference

818 cc338-341 

Session

2021-22

Chamber / Committee

House of Lords chamber
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