Come on, Clegg!

The event had a particular focus on patient and public involvement in the new NHS and was attended by patient representatives and reps of 10 different charities, including the Alzheimer's Society, Age UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and, of course, Rethink (who are leading the coalition). Various journalists were there, too. The Deputy PM was about an hour late, but this gave us the chance to chat and discuss the questions we'd like to raise – and have a cup of tea or two! It also gave me the chance to have a quick chat with Minister of State for Health Paul Burstow, during which I managed to voice a few of my concerns…
 
There was some drama just before the Dep PM arrived, thanks to the collapse of one charity's banner – much to the annoyance of Clegg's PA, who seemed very stressed. Then the fan being used to cool down the room looked likely to bring down some more banners, so I turned it off, but not before turning up the speed – an amusing, if anxiety-inducing moment when I had visions of several banners falling on top of me as the Dep PM entered the room!
 
Thankfully, that didn't happen and I sat back down in my front-row seat, ready to listen to what Clegg had to say. So, what did he say? Well, too much to include here, but what stood out for me in his speech were the following points:

• He admitted again that there were mistakes on the Health Bill, that changes need to be made – "in some cases, significant ones".

• He said he wanted MPs to be given the chance to scrutinise the Health Bill,  again, after concessions are made next month and that it may need to go back to committee stage in the House of Commons (yay!)

• "I have always said that I think it is best to take our time to get it right rather than moving too fast and risk getting the details wrong."

• He said there were three big things that they are coming across in the listening exercise: that people want peace of mind, the best care and a say in the decisions that affect us and our families.

• He mentioned that he wanted less emphasis on competition – it would still have a role to play but one of the main aims of the regulator would be to protect patients.
  

However, what stood out most for me was when Clegg said that there will be no forced timetable of change towards GP commissioning, that GPs should only take that on when they're ready, working with other medical professionals.
 
GP commissioning is one of my big worries when it comes to mental health services. GPs can't be expert in everything, and a Rethink survey found that only a third of GPs questioned felt confident about commissioning mental health services, compared to two-thirds being confident about commissioning for diabetes and asthma. For this reason, I wanted to ask Nick Clegg how confident we could be that GP consortia would commission the right mental health services, given their lack of expertise. I wanted to tell him that this is the chance to make up for the decades of neglect and that the best people to consult about mental health services are the people who have used them.
 
There's nothing in the Bill as it stands at the moment that specifically guarantees patient involvement, and I wanted to ask whether GP consortia will have Boards on which patient representatives and members of the public, as well as expert social care and health professionals, will have a place. It's important to actively involve them in the decision-making process. This goes for Healthwatch, too, introduced in the Bill to represent patients' views.
 
Sadly, I wasn't picked to ask my question, but several other people did raise the same issue, including a feisty old woman who I think represented Age UK or perhaps the Alzheimer's Society. Hopefully, the fact that several people addressed this issue means that it will stick in Clegg's mind. Two or three Rethink reps got to ask questions, so mental health issues were prominent in the Q&A session.
 
It was great to see so many people fired up – particularly one man, who heckled Clegg for taking too many questions from journalists rather than the patients and charities he was supposed to be listening to!
 
Reading and listening to news reports today, the Tories are not happy about Nick Clegg's speech, one in particular is up in arms about it. So, let's hope that Clegg will stick to his guns and do what's best for us … we can but hope.