Impact of the Work of the Committee
51. The Committee makes an impact in a variety of
ways. Most obviously, it affects policy. As we stated here already,
our report into Smoking in Public Places seem to have played
a part in the House's decision to amend the Health Bill and introduce
a comprehensive smoking ban (see paras 14-18).
52. Sometimes changes in policy take place during
an inquiry. During our inquiry into ISTCs the Government
announced its intention to encourage private providers to train
doctors and to integrate better with the NHS.
53. The Committee acts as a forum where major health
issues are aired. Prominent this year were the causes and consequences
of the deficits and the mistakes made in workforce planning in
recent years. Senior figures are questioned about both the most
topical and neglected subjects: Ministers, senior DoH officials,
heads of arms length bodies, clinicians including heads of royal
colleges and representatives of nurses and other professionals,
chief executives, chairmen of trusts and academics, as well as
patients, individual practitioners and managers who were able
to provide a very different version of events from the Department's.
The Committee is able to establish the truth. For example, the
need for additional capacity has often been given as the justification
for ISTCs; our questioning revealed that the additional capacity
had been too small to have a significant effect.
54. The Committee's inquiries also act as a way of
publishing important information. The PEQ is particularly
valuable in this regard, providing a wealth of economic information,
much of which is unavailable elsewhere, in one document. Sometimes
it is important to reveal the extent of ignorance. For example,
the Royal College of Nursing did not know what the extra 85,000
nurses employed since 1997 were doing.[27]
Similarly, the Government has employed 45% more people in central
administration since 1997, which includes clerical workers and
people in human resources, but has no idea how the figure breaks
down and what the additional staff are doing.[28]
27 Oral evidence taken before the Committee on Thursday
18 May 2006, Workforce Planning, HC 1077-ii, Q 167 Back
28
Oral evidence taken before the Committee on Wednesday 29 November
2006, Public Expenditure on Health and Personal Social Services
2006, HC 94-ii, Qq 156-157 Back
|
