Health Bill

Debate between Baroness Grey-Thompson and Baroness Hyde of Bemerton

Committee stage
Wednesday 28th October 2026 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Grey-Thompson (CB)]

My Lords, Amendment 214 complements other amendments in my name. It concerns people with high support needs when they go into hospital and the care that they receive.

At two of my stays in hospital in the summer, I was repeatedly asked whether I had a carer. It felt very patronising as opposed to supportive. However, Second Reading of this Bill gave me another opportunity to have a lived experience of the NHS. This time I spent a week in St Thomas’ Hospital, which was an entirely different experience. It also gave me the opportunity to talk to people who would be affected by this amendment.

Nurses might be trained but not able to offer the appropriate support that someone with high care needs requires. If a person is unwell, it might be difficult for them to explain quite complicated care. There is a real fear among disabled people with high support needs about going into hospital in terms of the impact on their personal health budget—that it might be taken away or changed and about who pays for that care while the individual is in hospital. At a time of great worry, you do not want people to avoid going into hospital because they are worried about their personal health budget.

Hospitals might be accessible but not have the appropriate facilities for disabled people. This is where carers can make a real difference. Another individual contacted me to say that the nursing staff did not know how to use the hoist. It took four members of staff to operate it. It takes one person at home, but that one person was not allowed on the ward to help the individual. In another case, someone with cerebral palsy who was awaiting surgery could transfer to a hospital bed but was told that if they cannot transfer to the surgical bed—which they cannot do—they cannot have the surgery. Their carer is not allowed in to help them, so they are wasting all the pre-operative time. They know that they will be told that they cannot have the surgery.

We need to explore some of these issues further and might be able to in further groups. The current system is, at best, disjointed. We should be able to do better around the whole issue of carers.

[Baroness in Waiting/Government Whip (Baroness Hyde of Bemerton) (Lab)]

My Lords, this would seem to be a convenient time to pause proceedings for the day.