Health Bill [HL]

My Lords, I have a lot of sympathy with this amendment, not least because I have had endless discussions over many years with the noble Baroness, Lady Masham, and others on these issues. Indeed, as a DHSS Minister in the 1980s, I visited a number of spinal injury units. I also had some fairly broad experience as chairman of St Mary’s Hospital, in which the noble Lord, Lord Darzi of Denham, was particularly eminent. We had a problem with the allocation of beds, particularly with the beds that were allocated to particular specialties. St Mary’s was not expert at dealing with spinal injuries; we all recognised that. One therefore had to look at the very difficult question of the intake of people through the emergency system and how they could best be moved to the places that could best deal with them. The key to much of this seems to lie in the phrase "to limit the damage", because the same could be said to apply to those who suffer from strokes or cardiac problems. This issue may not apply solely to spinal injuries. The identification of beds always seemed to me to be one of the more complex issues with which any of us who dealt with the administration of big DGHs such as St Mary’s had to deal, although St Mary’s is a big teaching hospital as well. It is complicated anywhere, and it will certainly be complicated in a hospital with a big emergency intake. I make no criticism of DGHs; they do their best, but they are not all equipped to do everything for everyone. The amendment, or something along its lines, would be very welcome. It would go a long way towards helping those who have this particular affliction. It might even go a little further. I certainly have had experience of people with huge spinal lesions who were perhaps paraplegic and suffered from acute pain that might not be particularly related to that issue, but which afflicted them massively in later life for one reason or another. Such an affliction might best be treated by those with a special interest and the expertise in dealing with these things. I therefore have a great deal of support for the amendment which both noble Baronesses have put forward.