Speeches by Robertson.

“Given that there are so many unanswered questions and such little information, rather than estimates day, wouldn’t the better name for this debate be “a complete stab in the dark” day?”

“Of course, innovation, and the environment that leads to innovation, does tend to thrive in a competitive environment, but I have some concerns without further context about whether incentivising competition through prize money is the way to go. Certainly, if we asked the great British public the straightforward questi…”

“My hon. Friend hits the nail on the head. Although all these amendments come from a very good place, they are so obvious that they should already be happening, and are too obvious to be enshrined in some overriding duty in a Bill.”

“Turning to amendment 58, there is consensus that innovation is a good thing and that the Department and the Secretary of State should promote it. The advantage of the amendment is that it provides more detail on what innovation means and how it should be targeted, promoted and delivered.”

“For example, the amendment would require that the Secretary of State must”

““take steps to ensure the timely adoption and spread of clinically effective innovations”.”

“At a time when the Government and the Minister talk about efficiencies and saving money and when excellent organisations such as Healthwatch, which delivers its work for a surprisingly limited amount of money, are to disappear, it is rather remarkable to see these provisions without greater context, although I do wonde…”

“For example, on the adoption of electronic record-keeping systems, certain trusts used a number of them that did not speak to each other. There was a cultural barrier—if by culture, we mean work culture—in that some NHS trusts were very good at embedding and adopting an electronic patient record system that was uniform…”

“I will finish by talking about the use of data. Clearly, there are different uses of data when assessing where there are gaps—in this case, gaps or issues around health inequalities. Different Governments can and do use different data, and they reassess and re-evaluate the sort of data that they want to rely on; this G…”

“I thank my namesake for his intervention. I do not completely understand what he says, because the amendment refers to cultural barriers. He is absolutely right that we have to be careful when we mandate things, but the strength of the amendment is that it has a broad application and does not seek to mandate specific d…”

“I want first to refer to a rather puzzling provision in clause 6:”

“The NHS can be excellent at innovating, but the adoption and take-up of those innovations across the health service can be frustratingly slow. Indeed, there are numerous examples where it does not happen at all. Expressly referencing the taking of steps to ensure the spread and adoption of effective innovations is a st…”

“The clause, and amendment 58, deal with innovation. Although the NHS is responsible for some great healthcare innovations, not only in this country but around the world, unfortunately, it is often an example of a complete failure to innovate, or even to use fairly basic technology that has been around for a long time—I…”

“I note that the amendment mentions “cultural barriers to change”. In my previous career working for a national health charity, part of my role was to roll out specialist nursing services, working in partnership with NHS organisations and others operating in the health and social care space. We embedded new practices th…”

““The Secretary of State may make payments as prizes to promote innovation in the provision of health services in England.””

“My detailed knowledge of the way in which data is used within the Department of Health is probably too scant for me to say anything particularly meaningful in the context of this debate, but I will use an example that again relates to my local area and to health inequalities: MHCLG’s use of data to assess local governm…”

“An explanation of what is meant by “prizes” might assist not only the Committee but the public more widely. It is a rather odd word and does not sit hugely comfortably with the serious issue of promoting innovation in the NHS and healthcare in this country. It rather more conjures up the idea of a lottery or a game sho…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship once again, Sir Jeremy. I will speak generally about the amendments on health inequalities, and specifically about some points that the group of amendments homes in on. On the general principle of dealing with health inequalities, the sentiment behind amendment 13 is im…”

“Using one dataset to decide funding from one pot of money, and another for another pot of money seems quite arbitrary—or at least not joined up. If that happens within one Department, there is greater scope for it happening across different Departments—indeed, it is certain that it will. By my reading, that is what ame…”

“It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. Clause 7 says—I abbreviate: “The Secretary of State must exercise functions…with a view to ensuring that…there are sufficient people with appropriate education and training to meet the workforce needs of the health service, and…there is an effective system i…”