Lord Winston
Main Page: Lord Winston (Labour - Life peer)
Lord Carlile of Berriew (CB)
I am the son of a general practitioner who, by the way, was not any old general practitioner. Even the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, knows that the skills of general practitioners are not uniform and vary a good deal—as I say that I see that her surprise is falling, after what I said before. It is not the role of a general practitioner; it is the role of a specialist, and that specialist must be able to tell the patient their options for continuing with life: what palliative care is available and what caring systems, if they are unable to do certain things.
Lord Winston (Lab)
Is the noble Lord aware that virtually no specialism has 100% of those posts filled? In fact, in most cases in the UK, as can be checked using the recent figures from the Department of Health, many specialisms are down to about 30%, and many specialist areas in medicine are not covered by specialists at all.
Lord Carlile of Berriew (CB)
My answer to that is that they jolly well should be. I do not see at all that that is a point against the argument I am making. I would say exactly what I am saying in relation to any specialism. It is a very simple point: do I want someone knowledgeable to explain what palliative care is, or is not, available to me, or do I want it explained by a generalist, who may be extremely good, such as the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, or rather less good? I used to be a lay member of the General Medical Council, and I have disciplined very large numbers of doctors as a result of that experience. Having this specialist care is an absolutely essential requirement of what we are discussing.