My Lords, this is an important group and there is little to add to the expert contributions on the amendments, which have been spoken to so comprehensively. We have always championed the need for patients’ voices to be heard and listened to in the care and treatment they receive, and are doing so in pressing for the patient voice to be properly embedded in the new structures established under the Bill.
When appalling safety incidents occur, such as those so graphically spelled out in the First Do No Harm report from the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, we need not only to ensure that there are effective systems to make sure that victims receive the care, treatment and proper financial compensation needed but to enable the NHS to acknowledge and learn from what has happened, both to prevent further harm and to promote future patient safety.
In opening this group, my noble friend Lord Hunt made a strong case for an urgent, expert-led review of the 40 year-old Vaccine Damage Payments Act in the light of major developments and growth in vaccine usage and, of course, huge gains in population health and ill-health protection as a result. But the small numbers of individuals and their families who sustain serious injury or adverse reactions to vaccines—now to the fore as a result of the highly successful Covid vaccination programme—need legislative protection and a scheme that is up to date, fit for purpose, properly resourced and based on compensation levels and criteria that fully reflect the needs of today’s victims.
I am sure the noble Lord, Lord Storey, would have made an equally strong case for the repeal of the NHS Redress Act, a slightly younger 16 year-old scheme for adverse health incidents, which is out of date and also not fit for purpose.
The noble and learned Lord, Lord Mackay, led an expert and informed debate in Grand Committee last December on the NHS clinical negligence scheme and its ever-escalating costs, which is reflected today in my noble friend Lord Hunt’s Amendment 268 and its call for a major review of the scheme, including consideration of the Law Reform (Personal Injuries) Act and repealing its Section 2(4).
5 pm
As the contributions today underlined, the case for urgent review continues to be overwhelming. As my noble friend reminded us, the Commons Health and Social Care Committee is currently undertaking a major review of the scheme, with liability costs in 2021 the equivalent of a staggering 1.5% of the NHS budget, as pointed out today. The review is extensive, covering the legal and systematic changes needed to award compensation to victims of medical harms and how processes can be simplified for claims to be speeded up and patients to receive redress more quickly. It also covers how the current adversarial legal process can be changed and collaboration requirements between legal advisers representing both sides can be strengthened to facilitate earlier constructive engagement between the parties, rather than the current drawn-out, protracted process which causes such frustration and distress to patients and their families. The committee’s findings will need to inform and shape the terms of reference of any future overall review of compensation. I look forward to hearing from the Minister how the Government intend to take this forward.
Key to this is looking closely at the work of NHS Resolution, as the amendment stresses. Underlining everything is the importance of the system being able to learn from common failures—medical, procedural, training, managerial, policy or technology. The priority of better safe care must be paramount. That is why the messages of the report of the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, as we have again heard today, are so crucial to today’s deliberations. We strongly supported her determination to establish the post of patient safety commissioner. We also support her Amendment 288, which calls for schemes to be established for the care and support of victims who suffered avoidable harm from hormone pregnancy tests, sodium valproate and pelvic meshes. Her work on the rapid redress system provides a way forward in dealing with some of the issues raised by noble Lords. I look forward to the Minister’s response.