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Health and Social Care Bill

moved Amendment No. 57: 57: Clause 108, page 54, line 28, at end insert— ““( ) After subsection (2)(d) of that section insert— ““(e) to commission independent information and advice services to assist members of the public considering reporting or reporting a concern to any of the bodies listed in subsection (3), and those who go on to become witnesses under the procedures of the Office of the Health Professions Adjudicator.”””” The noble Earl said: My Lords, I bring us to an issue that has not so far been a feature of our debates on the Bill: the absence of any independent source of advice for patients or members of the public who have concerns about a health professional and want to know how they should set about reporting those concerns. Currently no service is funded to do this. Making a complaint about a doctor is a big step and a daunting task to all but the most feisty and determined among us. Many patients, because of age or infirmity, are in no way feisty, nor, often, are they able to draw on the emotional reserves necessary to enable them to stand up for what they believe is right, simply because that requires effort and courage. For emotionally vulnerable people of this kind, going to the GMC for advice is by no means an easy thing to contemplate. They need someone, at least at the outset, who can talk them through the process in a completely objective and unintimidating way. The other aspect of the problem is the opposite situation. There are many complaints made to the GMC every year which are a complete waste of time. Many of them are not the concern of the GMC at all and would be more appropriately dealt with by other bodies. The result is that the GMC is landed with a huge amount of unnecessary work in assessing and redirecting complaints of this sort. It would be much better if there were somewhere people could turn to for advice before launching into a complaint that otherwise might be wholly misdirected. The need for advice and assistance was highlighted by the Shipman inquiry. There is now quite a widespread feeling that this need should somehow be met. The amendment would make it a duty of the CHRE to commission independent advice and information services to assist members of the public who have concerns about the fitness to practise of a health professional: first, to enable them to decide whether to report that concern to a regulatory body; and, secondly, if they decide to do so, to assist them in that process. The CHRE sent me a note voicing concern that the proposal contained in the amendment might compromise its independence. I do not see why that should be, if we are talking about the CHRE commissioning a service, which it then oversees, and which is largely devoted to giving advice on process. In another place the Minister was broadly sympathetic to the aim of a very similar amendment but said that it was not necessary because the CHRE already had powers to provide a service of broadly this kind. That was encouraging, but the trouble is that, without appropriate funding, the CHRE will find it impossible to implement such a service. It would be very helpful if the Minister could provide some more concrete reassurance today about this idea and tell us whether and to what extent the Government’s thinking has developed on these matters. I beg to move.