Lords Committee hears from former Health Ministers and Care Quality Commission on better integration of primary and community care
Thursday 13 July 2023
On Monday 17 July the House of Lords Integration of Primary and Community Care Committee will hear from former Health Ministers and Health Secretaries of State in a series of evidence sessions which examine how better to facilitate integration of healthcare services and improve patient experience across the wider health service. The Committee will also hear from the Care Quality Commission.
The first session will explore how effectively integrated care systems (ICSs) are delivering on what they were set up to achieve. The Committee want to learn how ICSs are facilitating the integration of primary and community care and how they can be supported by NHS England and the Department of Health and Social Care (DHSC) in this role. The Committee are also keen to learn about the inspection frameworks for ICSs and how the concept of integration is assessed when ICSs are inspected.
In the second session, the Committee are keen to hear about the experience of former health ministers from different administrations. The Committee want to learn about how different administrations viewed integration and how they overcame barriers to encouraging it within the health service. The Committee also want to seek the former ministers’ advice on how best to effect reform within the health service, with a view to making the most effective recommendations in its final report.
The first evidence session will start at 3.00pm and can be watched live or on demand at Parliament TV or in person in Committee Room 4, Palace of Westminster.
The witnesses giving evidence to the committee will be:
3.00pm
- The Rt Hon Patricia Hewitt, Chair, Hewitt Review, Secretary of State for Health (2005-2007); and
- James Bullion, Chief Inspector of Adult Social Care and Integrated Care, Care Quality Commission.
3.55pm
- The Rt Hon The Lord Lansley CBE PC DL, Secretary of State for Health (2010 – 2012);
- The Rt Hon The Lord Hutton of Furness, Minister of State for Health (1999 – 2005); and
- The Rt Hon The Lord Warner, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (2003 – 2005) and Minister of State for National Health Services Delivery (2005-2007).
Questions may include:
- How will the CQC identify and assess whether improvements are necessary in the extent to which primary care and community care services are integrated internally, with each other and with other components of local health systems?
- What does the Hewitt Review imply for both the role of primary care and community care services and their integration with the wider health and care system? How well equipped are they currently to fulfil such roles?
- How far does the CQC have responsibility for identifying the root causes of barriers to integration that it observes? How, if at all, can it influence the mitigation of these barriers and their underlying causes?
- Most governments in recent decades have introduced initiatives to improve ‘integration’. What were the main initiatives undertaken when you were a minister at the Department of Health? What was the rationale underlying those initiatives?
- What progress has been made over the last two decades in improving integration between both primary and community care and the wider health service?
- What one change does your Ministerial experience suggest would make the biggest improvement to the integration of primary and community care in England?
