Lord McCrea of Magherafelt and Cookstown (DUP)

My Lords, like many noble Lords, I grew up at a time when the family doctor was looked upon as a family friend who could always be depended on whenever you were ill or in a time of crisis. Unfortunately, that is not the situation today. There is a major problem across the United Kingdom: patients desiring to see a GP find themselves sitting on the telephone and ringing the surgery 120 times, perhaps, but still not getting through to someone and giving up at the end of it. That is the reality of the situation in many places. I am sorry that the noble Lord, Lord Pannick, is not here. He posed a question to the noble Baroness, Lady Lawlor, concerning what happens if your GP retires. Let me give my small experience. My GP was in his late 50s. He was an excellent GP. During Covid, unlike many other practices, he still allowed patients to come to his surgery. Whenever elderly patients could not come, he went out to their houses and visited them in their own homes—unlike many other practices and GPs. Unfortunately, he got cancer and, in his late 50s, just recently, he passed away. We were left with a practice in our town with several thousands of patients but nobody to take it over. So what happened to us? Our GP died, and so, without any consultation whatever, we were all farmed out to seven or eight practices around the countryside, some of them not even close—just to whoever would take us. It is unrealistic to imagine that somehow a new doctor would have any knowledge of the pressures, the problems or the complex challenges that his new patient was facing; he would not have any continuity of care whatever. It was even worse than that, because it was several months before the notes went to the next practice that you were farmed out to. You were allotted a practice but the notes concerning any illnesses of the patients did not immediately follow; it was several months before they arrived. What has been suggested in these amendments today strengthens safeguards. Therefore, they are worthy of the support of noble Lords in this House.