HL Deb 10 December 2002 vol 642 cc106-8

3 p.m.

Earl Howe asked Her Majesty's Government:

What budget will be allocated to the Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health in order to ensure that the arrangements for replacing community health councils are adequately resourced.

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, funding decisions for the next three years will be announced shortly. I will write to the noble Earl when final decisions have been made.

Earl Howe

My Lords, I thank the Minister for that reply. Does he share my view that the success of the changes laid out in the recent legislation will be of the utmost importance for patients and the NHS? Given that the responsibilities of patients forums will be a good deal wider and more complex than those of community health councils, can the Minister confirm that substantially more staff are envisaged for patients forums than are currently employed by CHCs, and that 600 to 700 staff for some 600 patients forums will simply not be enough?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, I cannot be committed as to the numbers of staff and resources. That matter is tied into decisions on resources. I agree that the changes, including the establishment of the commission and patients forums, and the role of local authority oversight and scrutiny committees, will together result in much more powerful involvement of local people in the running of the NHS. We want to ensure that those arrangements are completed as satisfactorily as possible.

Lord Clement-Jones

My Lords, does the noble Lord agree that it would be highly cynical for a Minister in the other place to promise 300 offices for patients forums and then to deliver only 28?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, the question is not how many offices should be provided but whether there will be access to patients forum services in every part of the National Health Service. That is surely where we should focus our energies.

Baroness Pitkeathley

My Lords, does my noble friend agree that the budgetary requirements must ensure that adequate training is provided for patients and their representatives to ensure maximum participation in the development of strategies and patient representation?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, yes, I do. That will be one of the responsibilities of the newly formed Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health. We want to encourage many local people to come forward for potential membership of patients forums. I accept that we need to give them all the support we can to do their job properly.

Baroness Carnegy of Lour

My Lords, the Minister referred to "patients forum services". Are patients forums really a service, or fora, for patients?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, patients forums exist to ensure that every NHS trust and primary care trust is fully focused on meeting the needs of patients and the public. They will be composed entirely of local people with an interest in healthcare.

Baroness Masham of Ilton

My Lords, given that there are so many new health bodies with complicated names, when one is dedicated to helping patients, will the Minister ensure that it will be advertised so that people know where to go and that it will be well funded?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, the noble Baroness is right to suggest that, for patients forums to be successful, we must ensure that patients and the public have ready access. The new Commission for Patient and Public Involvement in Health will look closely at what can be done to ensure that the public have ready access to the services of patients forums. In addition, the new patient liaison service, which many trusts are establishing in their facilities, is proving to be of great benefit to patients whose concerns, if raised immediately, can be dealt with very quickly. The new PALS service has made a very good start.

Baroness Fookes

My Lords, will the Minister ensure that, while the CHCs continue to exist, they will not be starved of funds?

Lord Hunt of Kings Heath

My Lords, there is no intention to starve current CHCs of funds. We do not yet have a precise timetable for the establishment of patients forums and the winding-up of community health councils. We stand ready to be advised by the new commission on that matter.

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