argyrotsipi/train-dataset huggingface dataset:
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): On my hon. Friend’s first point about Cancer Research UK, let me be absolutely clear that it is opposed to the Bill. On the second point, what these bodies are all saying is that the Bill is unnecessary, but that if it is put in place, it would be dangerous. That would be the consequence of the Bill, and people think there are other ways of moving forward to improve access to innovative treatments.
Local Government Finance (England) — House of Commons, 2022-02-09
Topic: Health
Clive James Charles Betts (Labour, Centre-left): I mentioned the letter from the Secretary of State offering a meeting with officials. Perhaps it could be a meeting with Ministers, and perhaps I could be allowed to bring someone from the CCG and someone from the city council, who are doing great work together, to explain what they really want to see to marry up this place-based approach to health with local government.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): The Academy of Medical Royal Colleges robustly rejects this Bill. Like me, it supports the intention of extending access to innovative medical treatments, but it is very clear that it opposes the Bill—and this House should oppose it, too.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): I must take issue with my hon. Friend because he is quoting very selectively from the report. When he has finished speaking, I urge him to go online and have a look at the detailed briefing on the Bill from the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges. It applauds the principle of improving access to medical treatment, but it is absolutely clear that it opposes the Bill.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): I do not deny that. If the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges wants to shy away from any part of what I have said, the academy probably should not have written it in the first place. I did not write it on the academy’s behalf; the academy wrote it, and I have quoted it faithfully. People can make of it what they will, but what the academy said was that it "applauds the intentions of the promoters of the Medical Innovation Bill…to encourage responsible innovation in medical treatment, and…to deter innovation which is not responsible. Those are aims which medical Royal Colleges would wholeheartedly support and welcome." That is what the academy has said. I did not say it on the academy’s behalf The Association of Medical Research Charities summarised its position as follows: "We welcome the ambition of the Bill in seeking to address the important issue of encouraging medical innovation; innovation and its adoption can be low and slow in the NHS and there is much that can be done to improve this." Genetic Alliance UK said: "There is much more that could and should be done to address the barriers that currently inhibit the adoption and integration of research and innovation into the NHS." The Royal College of Physicians said in its consultation document: "The RCP strongly supports the aims of the Bill, and welcomes the debate and discussion around innovation that has occurred as part of the proposed Bill." Others will have different perspectives and will want to make other points as part of the consultation, but it seems clear to me, at least, that—as my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry said in his intervention, and as has been said even by those whom my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes says oppose the Bill—there is clearly something in the Bill that deserves further scrutiny in Committee.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): The point is that we all support the aim of improving access to innovative treatments; we simply do not agree that the Bill is the right way forward. Because my hon. Friend has quoted all those bodies, may I quote back to him the conclusion of the medical royal colleges? They will of course issue consultation responses that will be nuanced in relation to various points, but what we should look at is their conclusion, which could not be clearer: "In conclusion, Medical Royal Colleges do not believe that the Bill should be supported." That is their position.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): I thank my hon. Friend. He is being very generous. Can he not see, though, that supporting the principle of improving access to medical treatments is a completely different kettle of fish from supporting the mechanism whereby an individual Bill attempts to achieve that aim? In other words, it is perfectly consistent to say that one opposes the Bill robustly, as, indeed, did a long list of organisations and people, including research charities, medical royal colleges, Action against Medical Accidents and Sir Robert Francis. The list is huge. All those bodies state, robustly and clearly, that the Bill is not the mechanism to achieve those stated aims, and that is why the House should reject it.
Armed Forces Champions in Jobcentres — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Defense
Andrew John Gwynne (Labour, Centre-left): In theory this should be an excellent initiative, but the Minister will know that the previous veterans action plan, for 2019 to 2021, promised to "increase the number of Jobcentre Plus Armed Forces Champions and District Leads from the current position of around 45 unfunded, part-time posts to funding an Armed Forces lead in each Jobcentre Plus District and 100 support posts." That is not happening, so how can the Minister claim to be supporting the work of armed forces champions, while cutting the number of paid posts?
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Christopher Heaton-Harris (Conservative, Centre-right): I believe that the Bill should go into Committee, because it is an evolution: it is a process that we are going through in trying to get the position right. The Royal College of Physicians says that it "generally welcomes" the first part of the Bill, which enables the Secretary of State for Health to establish a database of medical treatments. However, it issues plenty of caveats in respect of how the detail should run. Those should be discussed in Committee, and that is where I want the Bill to go.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): My hon. Friend has made a very fair point. I now want to say something about the medical innovation database provision, which is one of the main differences between the Medical Innovation Bill and the Bill that we are discussing. Clause 2 provides for the Secretary of State to make regulations enabling the Health and Social Care Information Centre to establish a database containing information about innovative medical treatments and their outcomes. As a layman, I consider that to be a significant and fundamental part of the Bill. A central database recording all innovative treatments strikes me as a useful tool from which doctors can learn when tailoring medical treatments for their patients. Again, I speak as a layman, but I think that the creation of a system to enable that knowledge to be shared is a logical step towards medical innovation Having said that, I should add that the proposal is not without its worrying aspects. I wanted to raise them earlier, but the interventions from my hon. Friend the Member for Totnes delayed me. One of the main criticisms of clause 2 comes from the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, which states: "The proposed database could only be effective if it is compulsory, regulated, has robust quality assurance and be journal-led, ethically framed and rigorously peer reviewed. It will also require an honest culture in which participants are just as likely to register failures as successes" The clause provides for the Health and Social Care Information Centre to specify what information should be recorded and how it should be assessed. More experienced people than me will be able to note what standards and specifics need to be recorded to make the database useful and usable. It is certainly not for me to make any suggestions. The database will also be designed in consultation with professional bodies and organisations The clause contains the important provision that the database will cover all individual patient innovations, not only those in respect of which doctors have chosen to rely on the steps in the Bill to demonstrate that they have acted responsibly. It is a significant inclusion, as it means that the database will include and cover all treatments and their outcomes—both positive and negative —that take place in England. That is my understanding of the clause, but if my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry wants to correct any misunderstandings, he is welcome to do so. Therefore, this national database not only spreads the knowledge of successful innovations, but also has the benefit of ensuring that innovative treatments that do not work, or perhaps have harmed patients, are not repeated by other clinicians. That should go some way towards reassuring those with concerns. It will also, therefore, create a standard practice that all innovative medical treatment should be recorded in this database, which can be a useful tool for other doctors to draw information from when they are doing their own innovation.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Robert Alexander Stewart (Conservative, Centre-right): I came here to listen to my very good friend my hon. Friend the Member for Daventry (Chris Heaton-Harris) and to listen carefully to the debate. It seems to me that if Lord Saatchi’s Bill went into the sand and if this Bill does not make it into Committee and disappears, the one good thing that will come out of it is that the whole subject will be illuminated, and perhaps something good will come out of that. Therefore, the efforts of Lord Saatchi and my good friend the Member for Daventry will not be in vain. I hope very much that the medical authorities will look at this and think of it in that light.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Christopher Heaton-Harris (Conservative, Centre-right): Those safeguards do exist. A doctor has to act responsibly, and if he does not do so, the full weight of the GMC and the law will come down upon him. That situation will not change at all as a result of my Bill.
Offensive Weapons Bill — House of Lords, 2019-03-04
Topic: Health
Susan Williams (Conservative, Centre-right): Such a scheme would impose an additional burden. The noble Lord talks about other burdens; I am not denying that there will be burdens on various people from the introduction of whatever scheme comes in, but this would very much pass on that burden to local government As I understand it, the failures in online test purchases have lain at the point of sale.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Philip Andrew Davies (Conservative, Centre-right): I am only quoting what the RCS has said. My hon. Friend might want to decry my statement, but the RCS’s overall conclusion on the merits of the Bill is a different issue. I am merely pointing out that it has stated that this could be a consequence of the Bill. People can draw their own conclusions from that. I would like to think that I have tried to be as even-handed as possible by outlining the potential benefits of the Bill as well as the other potential consequences. I have quoted organisations that have raised concerns. I am trying to be even-handed, whether my hon. Friend likes it or not—I suspect that she does not—and that is what the Royal College of Surgeons has said.
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Wesley Paul William Streeting (Labour, Centre-left): Thank you for granting the urgent question, Mr Speaker. This is not a covid backlog; it is a Tory backlog. We went into the pandemic with NHS waiting lists already at a record 4.5 million, and now 6 million people are waiting on those lists—more than ever before. More than 1 million are waiting for scans and tests used to diagnose cancer, and the NHS itself is waiting—waiting for the Government’s plan to deal with the backlog. So where is it? It was due to be published today but was pulled last night. It is like something from "The Thick of It", but the reality is worse than fiction—a photo op without a plan; the Government’s own NHS recovery plan just another cancelled operation. But there is no need to worry, because there is a website coming that will tell people that they are waiting a long time, even if there is no plan to ensure that they do not- Then there is the "reason" for the delay. Briefings from the Department for Health and Social Care claimed that the Chancellor had blocked the plan. As one Government official said, "it’s pretty obvious it’s about Treasury reluctance to rescue the PM" Is this where the shambles of the Conservative party is taking us? Is the Chancellor seriously playing political games while 6 million people wait for care? No wonder the Health Secretary has not bothered to show his face this afternoon. He is probably still recovering from the embarrassment of this morning’s media round, where the big announcement was literally that there was no announcement. So it has been left to the Prime Minister to clear things up, which tends to go almost as well as breakfast television with the Culture Secretary. No wonder she has been dispatched to the middle east Let me turn to the "tough targets" that the Minister mentioned. Today the Prime Minister announced a new target that no one should wait longer than two months for cancer diagnosis, but there is already a target for the vast majority of cancer patients to be treated within two months of referral, and it has not been hit since 2015. Is this not just another example of the Conservatives lowering standards for patients because they consistently fail to meet them? The Prime Minister has also announced that three out of four patients should receive a cancer diagnosis within 28 days, but that is an existing target that was introduced last April and has never been met The waiting list crisis is the chickens coming home to roost after more than a decade of Tory failure. The Treasury blocked a plan for staffing and it is now blocking the plan to cut waiting times. Is it not now clear, amid the chaos, confusion and spectacular incompetence on display, that the longer we give the Conservatives in government, the longer patients will wait?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Barbara Mary Keeley (Labour, Centre-left): As a survivor of breast cancer that was treated in 2019, I was grateful to be seen within 10 days of the referral by my GP and to start treatment within a month. It is frightening that in the months between April and November last year over 90,000 women who might have breast cancer were not seen by a specialist within the target of 14 days of being urgently referred by a GP, and that this year half a million people with suspected cancer will wait longer than the supposed two-week maximum to see an oncologist. The Minister will know that an early diagnosis can be life-saving. What does he think the impact for potential cancer patients will be of the delay to the NHS recovery plan when waiting times are spiralling so much?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Grahame Mark Morris (Labour, Centre-left): It is essential that we address cancer treatment capacity. The Minister talks about diagnostics, which is important, but it is a horse and cart or a hand and glove. I know he is aware of the enormous unharnessed potential of high-tech radiotherapy as a solution to time-critical cancer backlogs, but it still receives only 5% of the cancer budget. Such investment could take enormous pressure off the NHS, especially at this time. Will he arrange a meeting with the Secretary of State so that we can explain to him the important role that advanced radiotherapy could play in tackling the cancer backlog?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Christopher John Bryant (Labour, Centre-left): May I urge the Government to abandon this talk of a "war on cancer"? It was Richard Nixon’s term and it was thought to be outdated back then. To many people, when Ministers talk about fighting cancer and how somebody has been particularly plucky or courageous for fighting cancer, it feels as though they are telling off the people who do not survive for not being courageous enough. I know that that is not what anybody means, so may we completely change that language? As I understand it, the Prime Minister has also announced another cancer target today: to get to 75% of all cancer diagnoses being made at stage 1 or stage 2. How on earth is he intending to get to that?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Chinyelu Susan Onwurah (Labour, Centre-left): These waiting times are misery, pain, frustration and agony for my constituents, and then there is the mental anguish of not knowing what is happening or going to happen. I have constituents who are begging and borrowing the money to go private because they cannot stand the pain. Is that the Minister’s plan for the NHS: driving people into the private sector? If it is not, what is his plan?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Kim Marie Johnson (Labour, Centre-left): I start by thanking all the NHS workers, who have done a tremendous job throughout the pandemic. My mum has been waiting for shoulder replacement surgery for more than two years, and the delay in this plan means that she will live with excruciating pain. Can the Minister give us assurances that this backlog will be dealt with in a timely fashion, and that that work will be adequately resourced and funded?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Matthew Toby Perkins (Labour, Centre-left): My mother died prematurely of lung cancer in her early sixties, so I know, as many others in this House do, that when it comes to cancer, waiting times do not just inconvenience; they literally mean the difference between life and death. I agree with the Minister that this is about not just investment but outcomes, and it is purely on outcomes that this Government are failing. Does he agree that the briefings from his Department suggesting the political games at the top of the Conservative party—"Who’s up, who’s down, who’s going to be the next leader?"—are influencing and impacting on the Government’s ability to get this plan out, and that that will not be forgiven by those people who are waiting for cancer treatment right now?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Catherine Jane Smith (Labour, Centre-left): Waiting lists for joint replacements are at a record high. I have been contacted by dozens of constituents with arthritis who are waiting in a lot of pain. What can the Minister say specifically about joint replacements to the more than 600,000 people who are waiting for them nationally? Has he met Versus Arthritis about the issue?
Elective Care Recovery in England — House of Commons, 2022-02-07
Topic: Health
Rachael Helen Maskell (Labour, Centre-left): The elective recovery fund had perverse thresholds written into it, so those hospitals that really struggled and battled with the pandemic were the very ones that did not get any money. Will the Minister ensure a fair distribution of funding in his plan, so that hospitals such as my local one in York that are still battling with very high levels of covid get the resources they need?
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
David Nuttall (Conservative, Centre-right): I hope that my hon. Friend’s intervention will go some way towards satisfying the concerns of those who are opposed to the Bill. From what we have heard, there seems to be a general acceptance of the principle in the Bill that there should be greater access to medical innovation. Even looking at the views of the various medical bodies—an impressive array, as I said—the best interpretation is that some are outright opposed and others are ambiguous. Either way, they all share the view that medical innovation is a good thing. It seems to me that the devil is in the detail. I hope that my hon. Friend’s confirmation that if the Bill proceeds he will be generous in speaking to people and looking at all possible ways of dealing with their concerns will persuade the House to give it a Second Reading Research and innovation are crucial to the continued success of healthcare. The NHS faces increasing demands: a growing population with an increasing lifespan, which is a good thing; an increase in its own capability, fuelled by advances in knowledge, science and technology; and ever-increasing expectations from the public it serves. We should not shy away from new ideas that put the patient first and offer chances that they may not otherwise have. This Bill will increase the likelihood of life-saving solutions being found where they did not previously exist. It will mean more choice for patients—for my constituents. It will provide doctors with a mechanism to enable them to use innovative treatments giving them the best possible chance to do what they do best—help patients. I support the Bill and trust it will receive its Second Reading.
Access to Medical Treatments (Innovation) Bill — House of Commons, 2015-10-16
Topic: Health
Sarah James (Wollaston) (Conservative, Centre-right): Does the Minister accept that all the bodies he has referred to, as well as the Association of Medical Research Charities, the Academy of Medical Sciences and the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges, have expressed concern that the Bill could undermine recruitment to clinical trials? That is an important point and I hope the Minister will accept that it is a genuine concern.