§ 11. Mr. Eric Pickles (Brentwood and Ongar)When he plans to bring forward regulations to govern the chiropody profession. [92594]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (Gisela Stuart)Chiropody is currently regulated by the Professions Supplementary to Medicine Act 1960. The Health Act 1999 provides for the making of an order to replace that Act and will establish a new health professions council. The chiropody profession will be among those to be registered by the new council.
§ Mr. PicklesI am grateful for that reply. The Minister is in the first few weeks of her new job, but is she aware of the considerable concern in the profession due to the delay in consultation on that order? Will she take this opportunity to reflect on the anxiety about whether the regulations will protect the title of chiropody? Does she agree that any body looking into matters of fitness to practise should be composed mainly of members of the relevant professions?
§ Gisela StuartI am aware of those concerns and should like to point out to the hon. Gentleman that a consultation process is in place. It is proposed that the process will start this month or in November, and we hope that the legislation will be in place in summer 2001. The hon. Gentleman appears to feel that there is an 249 extraordinary urgency about this matter, so it is quite surprising that nothing has been done about it in the past 20 years.
I should also point out that the professions will be fully consulted. Under the new legislation, the health professions council will contain a majority element of professionals, and its membership will be broadly based. Above all, the professions will play a key role in formulating the proposals to be put forward.
§ Mrs. Anne Campbell (Cambridge)May I add my congratulations to my hon. Friend on her promotion, and welcome her to the Front Bench? Is she aware that the previous Government's health cuts mean that elderly people in my constituency are no longer eligible to receive free chiropody treatment, even when they are badly in need of it? Will she look at the problem again, to see whether there is any way to make such free treatment under the national health service a national right for elderly people who may be having problems?
§ Gisela StuartI thank my hon. Friend for her kind remarks. Of course, we will strengthen community services to make chiropody available to any age group, and especially to the elderly. Part of the NHS modernisation proposals is to put more funds into primary care. That will include the group referred to by my hon. Friend.
§ Mr. John Bercow (Buckingham)I congratulate the Minister on her appointment, and wish her success. When she reflects on chiropody services, is the Minister aware of the remarks attributed in The Health Service Journal to the Chairman of the Select Committee on Health, the hon. Member for Wakefield (Mr. Hinchliffe), in which he denounced all who work in the private health care sector? I shall not repeat the word that he used, but it begins with "b" and ends in "s". Does the Minister share that assessment of people working in that sector, or does she agree with me and other Conservative Members that the hon. Gentleman's description is deeply offensive, both to private chiropodists and to people who are illegitimate children?
§ Gisela StuartI have some difficulty in sharing the hon. Gentleman's synthetic outrage. Fifty per cent. of the chiropody profession are in private practice and 50 per cent. work in the NHS. Both groups play a vital role in the provision of medical care.