Terminally Ill Adults (End of Life) Bill

Lord Empey Excerpts

Committee stage
Friday 12th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Empey (UUP)]

My Lords, in my opinion, these amendments are really about safety, but we have turned the debate into a generalised whinge-fest about the shortcomings of the National Health Service, and we are all aware that there are many.

However, from recent personal experience, I accept what the noble Baroness, Lady Gerada, said. I am fortunate that we have a local health centre; it has four floors and four practices—a separate practice on each floor—each with multiple members within them, who come and go. In general, if somebody is seriously ill, we are fortunate in that we would be able to have established contact with more than one team member.

However, the noble and learned Lord, Lord Falconer, said that he wanted the GPs mentioned to be a central point for the records. Here we come to an entirely different issue. I have seen records that include what the GP practice puts in, as well as discharge letters from the various hospitals people have been in. Those discharge letters are written by F1 doctors—which is the most junior doctor grade—who have just come out of university. Sitting there late at night, writing these discharge letters is regarded as one of the worst things a doctor has to do. I have seen serious mistakes in those letters, even regarding one of the problems the patient had. Getting those records changed is very difficult. The making of decisions on the future of an individual on the basis of a record that might be totally wrong or misleading is the reason why we need additional protections. It is only common sense, because we humans are all frail and we make mistakes. We write and say mistakes. We overlook things.