Breast Screening

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Tuesday 14th December 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The method for booking screenings has now changed, so people can book online on demand, rather than waiting for a referral.

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab)]

Does the Minister agree that it is beyond doubt now that screening is beneficial? Can he assure us that no credence is given to those arguing that screening leads to overtreatment? Can we say that that is scotched?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The Government completely agree with the sentiments expressed by the noble Baroness.

Virginity Testing

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Tuesday 12th October 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

I thank my noble friend for her warm welcome. In answer to her specific question, the Government absolutely agree with the World Health Organization’s view that virginity testing is a violation of the victim’s human rights and is associated with immediate and long-term consequences that are detrimental to physical, psychological and social well-being—as well as, in simple terms, being demeaning.

On my noble friend’s specific question about what we are doing with the World Health Organization, I shall write to her with more details.

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab)]

My Lords, virginity testing is an abuse of women and a denial of their rights over their own body. The same private clinics can offer virginity testing and, once they have decided that a woman or a girl is not a virgin, they can then offer hymen repair procedure. Does the Minister agree that this should be illegal and that it is a total abuse of that clinic’s profession? Having listened, as I can hear he has, to campaigners and professionals, will he give a stronger assurance that something will be done in the Health and Care Bill?

[Lord Kamall (Con)]

The noble Baroness makes a valid point; I do not think anyone in this House would disagree with what she said. Virginity testing is demeaning and hymenoplasty is not only demeaning but damaging to women’s and girls’ health and we want it to be banned as soon as possible. I give a pledge that I will push for this to be introduced as soon as possible. Whenever noble Lords are told that the Government will find parliamentary time to do something, I understand why there might be some scepticism about that, but I will push to make sure that we can introduce it as soon as possible.

Animal Diseases: Future Pandemics

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Wednesday 21st July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

The noble Lord identifies the threat extremely well indeed. The Department of Health works extremely closely with Defra on this exact point. I pay tribute to both the farming community here in the UK and officials at Defra for their work to encourage farmers to stand back from prophylactic use of antibiotics.

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, one of the most important lessons about “one health” from Covid-19 is that we must share more than just surplus vaccines; we must share the capacity to make vaccine. Can the Minister explain why the Government are resisting even a temporary TRIPS waiver when so many world leaders support it?

[Lord Bethell (Con) [V]]

My Lords, the noble Baroness is right that we need to massively increase international capacity for vaccine production. The Government are working on a vaccine strategy that will include ideas for doing that. A TRIPS waiver is something we have looked carefully at. It is our strong view that this Government support intellectual property, because it is only through our commitment to intellectual property that we can encourage the kind of massive investment by the private sector necessary to develop vaccines in the first place. For that reason, we remain hesitant about supporting a TRIPS waiver policy.

Elderly Social Care (Insurance) Bill [HL]

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

2nd reading
Friday 16th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, earlier this week, I was disappointed to hear a noble Lord asking a supplementary question refer to pensions as a burden. He further suggested that older people are unfairly benefiting at the expense of younger people. His words reflect a view that, when older people have ceased to be productive, they become a drain on resources.

The phrase “We are all living longer”—generally attached to a warning about how much this will cost the taxpayer—was never that accurate and is already out of date. Life expectancy is declining; so too is healthy life expectancy, which will inevitably result in a greater need for social care. Younger family members, some retired themselves, struggle to support older relatives in poor health and ensure that they are well cared for, whether in their own home or in residential care. This Bill does not address their main concerns about the falling standards of care resulting from cuts in funding.

The whole thinking behind this Bill is a hangover from the discredited creed that home ownership is a moral good. Its starting point is less about social care and more about the ability to pass on wealth. As such, it will fail to reach two groups: first, the increasing percentage of people who do not own their home and, secondly, the people wealthy enough not to worry. The Bill is aimed at those in between. They will be asked to gamble a substantial sum of money on eventually needing residential care—not even care in their own homes. I would argue that this is a gamble most would choose not to take. Polling shows that the majority of people want to see social care fully funded through taxation. I note from today’s Times that some Cabinet Members believe that this would require a wealth tax; that is very perceptive of them.

It seems likely that this Bill will disappear without trace. It is irrelevant to the serious debate on how we as a society provide all types of social care in many different settings at a standard we would hope to receive ourselves.

Women’s Health Outcomes

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Thursday 8th July 2021 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I too thank the noble Baroness, Lady Jenkin, for enabling this important debate. Unlike other health comparisons, the gap between men’s and women’s health is wider in some developed countries than in some less-developed ones. The UK ranks 87th in the world for men’s health, while it ranks 125th for women’s health—38 places lower. This gap puts it 12th in the international list of women’s health inequality. How can this be?

One of the reasons appears to be the misdiagnosis of women’s symptoms, which I will come to later. A second reason is that women are more likely to live in poverty than men. Whether as single parents, unemployed, on low pay, disabled or as pensioners, women are likely to be poorer than their male counterparts.

Not all inequalities in health relate to gender. Better-off women can expect 20 additional years of healthy life than those who are worse off. Even before the pandemic, progress on healthy life expectancy had stalled and begun to go backwards. The latest figures show that less than a third of women are still in work by the time they reach retirement age. For many, this is not through choice but because they cannot find work or are actually too ill to work. We are condemning many of these women to spend the remainder of their lives in poverty.

As we have heard from several speakers, women have to shout louder to get their concerns listened to. Some of the women who have had to shout the loudest are those affected by mesh implants. The independent review chaired by the noble Baroness, Lady Cumberlege, produced its report First Do No Harm one year ago today. It found that women describing their excruciating chronic pain were dismissed as imagining it or told it was their “time of life”. The report argued that anything and everything that women suffer is perceived as a natural precursor to, part of or a post-symptomatic phase of the menopause. What do the Government intend to do to prevent so many women spending their later years in ill health and poverty? When can we expect the establishment of a redress agency, as proposed in First Do No Harm?

Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Wednesday 15th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

The noble Baroness is entirely right that transparency is essential in order to have a fair and equitable healthcare system. The GMC has already considered these areas and has moved a long way. The world has changed considerably since many of these horrific events took place, but I am sure there is more to be done and this recommendation, like others, will be considered seriously by the Government.

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, there is so much to be said about this excellent report, but I shall quote one devastating sentence on mesh implants, where it raises the question

“whether the modification of a device so that it required less skill to insert should have been the preferred option rather than improving the surgical skill base.”

Does the Minister agree that there is an urgent need for a robust surgical training programme for inserting mesh devices and, just as importantly, for their removal? Will resources be put in place for such a programme?

[Lord Bethell]

The noble Baroness is right to emphasise the dangers of the insertion of mesh. It is a procedure that is still taking place within the NHS. We are looking at bids for specialist units in relevant trusts to build up the kind of specialist skills necessary to deal with the problems that have emerged from mesh procedures that have gone wrong.

Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review

Baroness Bryan of Partick Excerpts

Thursday 9th July 2020 Lords Chamber

[Lord Bethell]

My Lords, no one who reads the report can help feeling anger and shame; the noble Lord puts it well. I completely endorse his feelings and the Government will be looking at these recommendations closely and acting on them in the spirit he describes.

[Baroness Bryan of Partick (Lab) [V]]

My Lords, I ask this question on behalf of some of the women campaigners. The report states:

“The removal of transobturator tape is technical and complex surgery and there are very few surgeons in the UK capable of undertaking this”.


While this remains the case, will the Minister consider banning these mesh tapes until women can be sure that any post-operative problems can be fully and safely treated?

[Lord Bethell]

My Lords, one cannot read the descriptions of the consequences of some of the surgery around mesh, and the pain and suffering that some of the women endured, without feeling huge anger and shame and instinctively wishing to ban such a thing. However, mesh offers a solution to some women whose prolapse is profound and who have run out of options. There are women for whom mesh has been a great saving and where there has been a successful procedure. Procedures around mesh have improved dramatically. We are reluctant to apply a blanket ban, but we take the recommendations of the report very seriously and will be looking at this procedure extremely closely.