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Health and Social Care Bill

I have agreed to attach my name to the amendments, alongside that of my hon. Friend the Member for North-West Leicestershire, because Members in my party have been some concerned about the strength of patient representation for some time, and it is right that those concerns are raised from time to time so that the Government are made aware of them. The abolition of community health councils and the switch to the patient and public involvement forums—and now to LINks—show that the Government are concerned about patient representation, but I am not sure whether they want to strengthen it, or have had pressure put on them to weaken it in some way. I know that the then health authority perceived the community health council in my area to be a nuisance. The primary care trust has regarded the patient and public involvement forum in our area, especially its chair, as a nuisance. However, patients' representatives should be a nuisance. If they make a lot of noise, perhaps there is a basis for what they are doing. I hope that my hon. Friend the Minister and the Government will reconsider giving a role to LINks in the way in which the amendments suggest. Perhaps they will table their own amendments if the ones that we are considering are defeated. I repeat a point that I have made several times about local authority democratic accountability. When most long-term care homes were in the public sector, there was recourse to local councillors and local democratic representation. With privatisation and subsequent institutional reform, that local democratic accountability was lost. Indeed, many families now come to their Members of Parliament—more than one constituent has approached me—about problems with care homes. There should be a stronger role for patient representation and I hope that that view can be accommodated in the Bill before it receives Royal Assent.