1. Introduction
1. We aim to take oral evidence from each member
of the ministerial team for health each year, and as part of this
rolling programme of evidence sessions we invited David Lammy
MP, then Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Emergency
Care and Public Involvement, to come before the Committee to discuss
his portfolio on 15 May 2003. We are very grateful to Mr Lammy
for his co-operation with our work, and for his evidence to us
on that occasion.
2. Our aim was not to conduct a full inquiry into
any one aspect of his remit, and as such we did not seek oral
or written evidence from any other source. However, we did want
to question Mr Lammy on the policy surrounding patient and public
involvement, and in particular the transition from Community Health
Councils to the new systems and structures for patient and public
involvement being introduced by the Government, because we knew
they were a major cause for concern. Given the public attention
surrounding the introduction of these reforms, and their huge
significance for the NHS, we felt that if our concerns were to
go unreported we would be missing a valuable opportunity to contribute
to debate on this issue.
3. We would like to note at the outset of this report
that David Lammy, who was appointed Parliamentary Under-Secretary
of State for Emergency Care and Public Involvement in May 2002,
was not involved in the development of these policies, rather
he inherited them from a long line of government Ministers, most
of whom dealt only briefly with this important area. In the three
years since the launch of the NHS Plan in July 2000, patient
and public involvement has been the responsibility of no fewer
than four separate Ministers, none of whom held the patient involvement
portfolio for much over a year.[1]
Since we took evidence from Mr Lammy, responsibility for this
area has now been passed on to another Minister, Rosie Winterton
MP, Minister of State for Health.
1 Gisela Stuart MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for
Health 14 February 2000-14 June 2001; Hazel Blears MP, Parliamentary
Under-Secretary for Health 15 June 2001-28 May 2002; David Lammy
MP, Parliamentary Under-Secretary for Health, 29 May 2002-15 June
2003; Rosie Winterton MP, Minister of State for Health, 16 June
2003- Back
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