House of Commons - Work of the Committee 2007-08 - Health Committee

Work of the Committee 2007-08 - Health Committee Contents

3 Other issues

Working practices

38. This part of our report highlights aspects of our working practices which depart from previous practice or which otherwise might be of interest.

INFORMAL MEETINGS

39. In addition to holding formal evidence sessions, on most Mondays when the House is sitting the Chairman, usually accompanied by one or more other Committee members, holds informal meetings with organisations with an interest in health. These meetings present an opportunity to discuss current health policy with a wide range of organisations, which over the last year ranged from representatives of a major supermarket to discuss nutrition and food labelling to representatives of charities including the Multiple Sclerosis Society and organisations representing hospices. Many of the meetings have provided useful background information to our inquiries. Annex 4 lists the meetings we have held.

40. Information gathered during Committee visits is often invaluable in shaping and informing our inquiries. As part of the inquiry into Health Inequalities, the Committee visited Glasgow, a city with some of the worst health in the UK. We are very grateful to Professor Sally Macintyre, Professor of Social & Public Health Science in the Faculty of Medicine, University of Glasgow; and Honorary Director of the MRC Social & Public Health Sciences Unit, for arranging the visit which included not only information on measures being taken to address inequalities, but also a most important briefing on the importance of evaluation. We also went to Norway and the Netherlands where we met politicians, civil servants, academics, and clinicians to learn about the measures taken by societies which have made serious efforts to reduce inequalities. After the meetings in the Netherlands we went to Brussels for informal discussions with the EU Commission. The Committee has received visitors from overseas and in January 2009 arranged to meet the Commissioner Vassiliou at Westminster.

FOLLOW-UP TO PREVIOUS REPORTS

41. We are keen to follow-up recommendations which were made in our reports in previous sessions. We do this during our one-off evidence sessions with Ministers; for example, we asked Ivan Lewis to update us about reports on, and commitments made by the Government in response to: Delayed Discharges (2002), Elder Abuse (2004), Palliative Care (2004), NHS Continuing Care (2005) and Audiology Services (2007). In advance of the session, the Department of Health sent us a memorandum on developments in these areas, outlining progress on implementing recommendations. We also separately sought a memorandum from the Department to update our report on The Provision of Allergy Services which was published in 2004. In addition, we requested memoranda on other topics, including neuropathology services. These memoranda are appended to this report.

PUBLICATION OF WRITTEN EVIDENCE AT BEGINNING OF INQUIRY

42. During 2007-08, the Committee continued its practice of publishing written evidence at the beginning of an inquiry. Much of the evidence received by the deadline is printed in a single volume, and on the Committee's webpage. This has several advantages: the compact, printed volume is much easier to use than a plethora of loose papers; and the Committee, witnesses, the public and the press are able to view the evidence that has been submitted, which is often a stimulus to further discussion.

PUBLICATION OF SPREADSHEETS OF PEQ DATA ON WEBSITE

43. As we did last year, we placed on our webpage the Department's response to the PEQ questionnaire in advance of our evidence sessions with officials and the Secretary of State. The Department's response contained a great deal of information, much of which was tabulated data. By placing these tables, in the form of a spreadsheet, on our web page we made it possible for people to access readily the information they were looking for, for example about their own PCT's performance.

44. On 19 January 2005 the House decided that a copy of each petition presented to the House should be sent to the relevant departmental committee. During 2008 we have received a number of petitions, on a range of health-related topics, some of which may prove useful to future inquiries.

45. The Liaison Committee asked Committees to seek written feedback from witnesses through a generic questionnaire. The questionnaire asked witnesses to rate the quality of pre-meeting instructions; their satisfaction with the information they received before the session; and their overall experience of being questioned by the Committee.

46. Most witnesses who replied expressed satisfaction with their experience of appearing before the Committee. Few comments were made, but one witness stated that the questions were "well-designed to elicit the issues" and another that "questions were direct and short providing ample opportunity to respond".

47. We received help in our inquiries from the National Audit Office. Staff there have provided briefing for our PEQ exercise and have undertaken surveys for us for the Dental Services and Patient Safety inquiries. We also had helpful discussions in other inquiries such as Modernising Medical Careers. The House of Commons Library has been a source of advice over the year as has the Scrutiny Unit based in the Department of Chamber and Committee Services, particularly on the Foundation trusts and Monitor and PEQ inquiries. Finally, we have benefited enormously from the expertise of our specialist advisers. We are grateful to all those who helped us.

Looking forward

48. In the first part of 2008 we expect to conclude our major inquiry on Patient Safety and publish our report on Health Inequalities. We will take evidence on the NHS Operating framework from the Secretary of State and intend to question another Minister on his or her responsibilities. After Easter we will begin a major new inquiry.

© Parliamentary copyright 2009
Prepared 29 January 2009