Lord Kamall (Con)

My Lords, I thank the Minister for tabling the Statement. I am sure that the ambitions for the renewed women’s health strategy will be supported by noble Lords from all Benches. I know that the Minister recognises that women have too often felt unheard, as conditions such as endometriosis and chronic pelvic pain go underdiagnosed. There was emphasis in the Statement on listening to women and tackling entrenched inequalities. This is, of course, welcome. We support the focus on a shift from treatment to prevention and from hospital to community, as well as the ambition to unlock the potential of digital innovation through NHS Online. I also thank the Minister for acknowledging that these initiatives build on work undertaken by previous Governments. However, many women will judge this strategy not by its intentions and words but by whether it leads to tangible improvements in their day-to-day experience of care. All Governments announce grand strategies, but sometimes fail to deliver. While many of these individual announcements are welcome, I hope the Minister will allow me to ask for further clarity on a few points. First, on waiting times and access to care, it is encouraging that waiting times for overall gynaecology have begun to move in the right direction, but many women are still waiting too long for diagnosis and treatment. We know what that leads to—a range of conditions, often worsening outcomes and poor quality of life. Can the Minister tell us what the department is doing to speed up the whole pathway from when the patient first presents through to treatment? How will it ensure that there is greater transparency for patients, so that they know where they are in the queue and how long they really have to wait, rather than estimates? Secondly, the strategy rightly places an emphasis on listening to women and acting on their experiences. I am sure that noble Lords across the House share that objective. However, experience suggests that, unless you have clear structures for accountability, good intentions do not always translate into change. How will the department ensure that any feedback gathered in a patient consultation is not just perfunctory but consistently acted upon, and that it reflects a diversity of women’s experiences? There will be a range of experiences; it will not be the same for all women, especially for those who face additional barriers to being heard. I will give your Lordships a couple of examples from my time in the department. I wonder what progress has been made. I remember when a young official came up to me and told me about her friend, a young Black lady, who had lost her baby. When they asked for the investigation and the paperwork, it had magically disappeared. How do we make sure that that sort of incident does not happen again, that there is real accountability and that there is no gaslighting, particularly for women from ethnic minority communities? Another example comes from when I spoke to the baby loss charity Sands. Of course, we value the work that the noble Baroness, Lady Amos, is doing on maternity care. I recently received an email from a lady whom I met at Sands, which said: “For almost three years, my case was handled by the same caseworker. Of course, sometimes I questioned their competence, but at least the caseworker knew my case and they knew about things. And, despite being advised that my complaint was at its final stages, I’ve just been told that it’s been reallocated to a new case handler. Someone has to relearn the case, but has not yet been given a date for when that case will be heard”. I wonder what the Minister’s department can do to ensure that people who have suffered terribly, and are still suffering physically and emotionally from what has happened, really get the justice that they deserve. Let us move on to patient safety and redress. The Statement refers to unacceptable experiences of women harmed in the past. As the House will be aware, the recommendations of the Hughes report were intended to provide redress for medical interventions such as the pelvic mesh, sodium valproate and hormone pregnancy tests, but many women are still waiting for some form of redress or help. Often, they are racking up bills, such as taxi bills to go to appointments, and many of them are still in pain. When I was in the department and I was being asked the question, in the Minister’s place, I would go back to the department and ask what we are doing about this. The first answer I would be given was that I should leave it to the responsible Minister as I was the Minister responsible for technology, innovation and life sciences. When I probed again over time, I was told by one official that the Treasury does not like to write blank cheques. That is understandable—the Treasury is the guardian of the national finances. I used to ask whether anyone was doing any work on how much this would cost so that we could then present to the Treasury the cost of providing some form of redress. The Hughes report suggested £20,000 each for mesh victims and £100,000 for sodium valproate victims. We welcome the fact that 100 of the 10,000 women who suffered from the pelvic mesh issue have received some payout from manufacturers. What about the others? I am told that many women missed out due to limitations for civil claims. What can the Minister’s department do to help those poor women who are still suffering and make sure that more women receive redress as quickly as possible? As a result of the Hughes report, we now know that it is not a blank cheque. We know that there will be negotiations between the Department of Health and the Treasury. Can the Minister update us on those discussions so we can better understand whether these women are finally going to achieve some form of justice? Going forward, we need not only to make up for the mistakes of the past that have occurred under all Governments but to address the outstanding issues, making sure that those women who suffered are receiving long-term support and learning the lessons so that if, sadly, this ever happens again, we know how to address those issues and give the appropriate care, compassion and redress to those who suffer. Overall, there are a number of different issues covered by the women’s health strategy. I know some noble Lords will be concerned that, although it is wonderful to have a grand, overall strategy, what about the individual interventions that we need from the departments, clinicians and others? How do we deliver on all those various issues that women suffer from to make sure that patients across the country—whatever party they support or however they feel—particularly female patients, believe that the renewed women’s health strategy will finally deliver a safe system of health for all of them and justice for those who have suffered in the past?