Dame Caroline Dinenage
MP for Gosport · Conservative · United Kingdom
“I pay tribute to my right hon. Friend for the fantastic work that he did as shadow Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, and he is absolutely right. We really need the full response to the Fuller report in order to implement not only changes to mortuaries, but all the other amendments that it recommended.”
“I will speak about new clause 41, which stands in my name. We put enormous, unquestioning trust in those who care for the bodies of our loved ones when they die. However, in this Chamber six months ago, I told a former Health Minister, the hon.”
“Both new clauses would fix the same issue, and either will do. The key thing is that this is a moment for the Government to seize, not resist. Ministers have already said that, in principle, they agree with what new clause 41 would require of them. Every trade body agrees. Every family who has been failed agrees.”
“It was only persistence and ingenuity on the part of Hampshire constabulary that saw Elkin and Bell brought to justice. The Minister at the time told me that a decision on regulation would come in the Government’s full answer to the Fuller inquiry, and we are still awaiting. Since then, matters have worsened.”
“I also warmly welcome this announcement. The sheer number of young people whose lives have been impacted by this issue is a damning indictment of a collective failure to keep children safe. Let us not forget that major tech companies have the capability to implement device-level controls but have chosen not to do so.”
“I genuinely could not agree more. This is not at attack on the profession. The vast majority of funeral directors do their job with extraordinary skill, great care and huge professional integrity.”
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“That is why we need to capture the potential of every way possible of ensuring that people get access to treatments as effectively and quickly as possible. In Gosport, 1,500 people have a dementia diagnosis. Dementia is one of the biggest healthcare challenges facing us as a nation, but there are some exciting and innovative developments there too. The EDoN—Early Detection of Neurodegenerative diseases—project will use wearable tech to detect signs of dementia even 10 to 15 years before symptoms appear. Too often, a dementia diagnosis comes far too late—once symptoms are already well advanced. This technology could be game changing by allowing people to make advance lifestyle interventions that might minimise the impact of the condition.”
“However, there is an urgent need for action to ensure that we do not lose the opportunity to impact patients’ lives and effectively deliver on this ambition and this ability. We have the potential to make the United Kingdom the most attractive place in the world for innovation and, in particular, medical innovation. We know that medical technology helps to deliver better patient outcomes, improves care pathways, drives cost savings in the NHS, reduces the burden on the workforce and, critically, can help to reduce the backlogs. This matters to people’s lives. In the Hampshire and Isle of Wight integrated care board area, more than 54,000 people are waiting to start treatment. The average time people are waiting in my local area to start their treatment is 16.9 weeks, with 47% of patients waiting more than 18 weeks.”
“The right system not only increases the UK’s access to the newest innovations but increases patient safety by maintaining access to the widest possible range of thoroughly regulated and already available health technology from around the world. Therefore, my first question to my hon. Friend the Minister—I should warn him I have two or three—is whether he can confirm the timescales for the new model to ensure continued patient access to health tech and whether there will be a sense of urgency about this. The Minister and you, Sir Gary, will know that the pandemic, through the early innovation of the vaccines and the remarkable work done by British scientists, demonstrated the UK’s ability to be a real science and technology superpower.”
“Of course, any products that enter the UK market via regulatory equivalence routes from trusted international jurisdictions will need to be approved by the MHRA and to be subject to strict vigilance and post-market surveillance requirements, so a number of checks and balances are in place for British patients. However, this new system post Brexit gives the UK more control to determine what products can be placed on the market. As the hon. Member for Strangford (Jim Shannon) said, we must ensure that the regulatory system is robust but also prevent the UK from becoming a secondary market, where patients and clinicians have less access to technologies.”
“It is always a great pleasure to see the hon. Gentleman, who always make very sensible interventions on these issues. He is absolutely right: we need the right regulation in place, but we also need to have the facilities to make sure that, once technology and treatments have been approved, they are easily and quickly accessible to those who most need them. I will be the first to admit that I was not the biggest advocate of Brexit. However, the freedoms afforded by Brexit allow us the opportunity to recognise approvals from any jurisdiction that we deem appropriate.”
“And if we could then monitor those people and conduct the clinical trials and observations that may lead us to find cures that change immeasurably the lives of both those living with dementia and their families, that must be worth embracing. One of my big concerns is that we just do not adopt these technologies and innovations early enough, and that we certainly do not get them into the NHS early enough. There is a whole raft of issues around risk aversion and proving cost-effectiveness, and local areas wanting to be early adopters of innovation. We have a load of obstacles to overcome, but I am really grateful to the Minister for setting out his stall and articulating how we are going to tackle this issue. Question put and agreed to. Resolved , That this House has considered medical technology regulations and the NHS.”
“We all know that prevention is better than cure, and we now have technology on our side that can really ensure that that prevention happens. The Minister said that this is not a subject for conversation around dinner tables. I know that it is wildly technical, but some of its implications are the sorts of things that people talk about around their dinner tables. If one was able to predict whether one might be susceptible to developing dementia, would one want to know? Those are the sort of moral and ethical questions and conversations that people have. In many ways, people may feel that they would not want to know. In other ways, however, if people could make lifestyle interventions that would prevent or delay the onset of dementia, they might want to know.”
“We have to build on it and make sure that it really delivers its potential in terms of saving lives, improving people’s quality of life and health outcomes, and immeasurably impacting people’s experiences in our NHS. However, as the Minister and the Opposition spokesman, the hon. Member for Denton and Reddish (Andrew Gwynne), both said, the strategy also has massive potential for our economy, nationally and regionally. In fact, the Opposition spokesman summed things up really well when he talked about some of the technology; is seems almost unimaginable or something from a sci-fi movie, but it is out there already, and we need to be nimble and agile, and lean in to harness its potential. We just have to do everything we can to ensure that all the obstacles that would stand in the way are removed.”
“Thank you, Sir Gary—I will be very brief. I start by thanking the Minister for so comprehensively answering all my many questions and for showing his huge commitment to and understanding of this issue. It is a bit technical, as he said, but it is very reassuring to know that we have a Minister in place who gets it. It is also reassuring to know that we have a Chancellor in place who, like myself, was in a digital role and in a health role for many years, and really understands this issue and has a desire to put the weight of the Government behind it to make sure that we get it right. The medtech strategy is a great starting point; we just have to make sure that we do not let it lose impetus.”