Lord Hunt of Kings Heath (Lab)

My Lords, like the noble Lord, Lord Patel, I apologise for coming back to the substance of the debate on the first group. We should pay tribute to the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, for how she has approached these issues. Her amendments, which I agree with, are very tightly drawn to Malta and Newcastle. She has been engaged with my noble friend the Minister and has asked for certain assurances from her; I hope my noble friend will be able to respond to them. This identifies the madness of the situation that we have. UK universities with campuses abroad often have students coming from the UK; they go over there to study in the hope that they can then come back to the NHS and apply for specialty training places. If ever one wanted a reason for why we need a fundamental, wholesale review and reform of the gamut of medical training, this is it. I chided the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, about the royal colleges’ leadership in this area, because the colleges should take leadership. Through her leadership of her college, and that of the noble Lord, Lord Patel, we have examples of the kind of leadership that we desperately need now from the medical royal colleges.