‘Babies are still being damaged’ Tory peer warns ‘evasive’ ministers

The Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review spoke to more than 700 people, mostly women who suffered avoidable harm from surgical mesh implants, pregnancy tests and an anti-epileptic drug, and criticised “a culture of dismissive and arrogant attitudes” including the unacceptable labelling of many symptoms as “attributable to ‘women’s problems’”.

The review’s author Baroness Julia Cumberlege told HSJ that “time is marching on” for the Department of Health and Social Care to implement the recommendations of her July report, which include setting up a new independent patient safety commissioner.

The Conservative peer said pressure was building on government to adopt the findings of the review, since it had been endorsed by Royal Colleges and has already been adopted by the Scottish government. She said the government had given “evasive” answers in parliament on the issue.

In an exclusive interview with HSJ, Baroness Cumberlege said:

• There is a crowded field of regulators but “there’s a void” for a service that listens and responds to patients’ safety concerns.
• She feels “diminished” that women’s concerns are still being dismissed by clinicians, but said young doctors are a cause for hope.
• She is “very optimistic” report will be implemented – but the NHS has to have the will to make changes.

Baroness Cumberlege said she is “still waiting” to hear the government’s response to the report and her amendment to the Medicines and Medical Devices Bill – which would allow a patient safety commissioner to be appointed.

She said: “We have heard that work is going on, but nobody has told us what work is going on. We don’t know what their view is of the report because [to] all the parliamentary questions that have been put down, the answers have been evasive.

“We believe that [with] the pressure that is coming from the healthcare service […] that it’s not sustainable for the department not to agree to the recommendations.

“Scotland has already agreed to implement our report. We feel the Department of Health, who commissioned the report, should have come to us at least by now with some indication of what their view is.

“I’m not too surprised [by the delays] but I really think time is marching on. Babies are still being born who are damaged because the information is not getting to the women who are pregnant and epileptic.”

Care Quality Commission chief executive Ian Trenholm has been sceptical about the need for a ‘patient safety commissioner,’ while the Parliamentary and Health Service Ombudsman Rob Behrens has warned of an “overcrowding of regulators” in the NHS.

Baroness Cumberlege said people in individual regulators are “on the whole doing very well” but the healthcare system “is disjointed, it doesn’t work together”. 

She said: “It is a crowded field, I very much accept that. [Mr Behrens] agreed that the health service is disjointed, unresponsive and defensive.

“We don’t want a wholescale reorganisation of the NHS or indeed the healthcare system. But we have found that there is a gap. There is a void when it comes to someone who will actually listen to patients, who will then hold a mirror up to the health care system and see when things are beginning to look wrong, rather than waiting for huge disasters and then you have to have an inquiry.”

Baroness Cumberlege said many clinicians are still dismissive of women, but young doctors are a cause for hope.

She said: “Young doctors seem to be much more aware of the necessity to listen to their patients and what their patients’ families are saying as well. That’s very hopeful for the future.

“But there are certainly many people we know, many clinicians, who simply dismiss what women are saying. They simply don’t take it seriously at all.”

Baroness Cumberlege said she is “very optimistic” the report’s recommendations will be adopted – but it’s important that NHS leaders have the will to make cultural changes.

She said: “Where there’s a will, there’s a way. It’s very important that they have the will to do this. I’m sure when I think of the amazing, compassionate people in the NHS I’m sure they won’t want to see the suffering continue.”

The Department of Health and Social Care has been contacted for comment.