Maternity services. Volume II, Minutes of evidence.

  • Great Britain. Parliament. House of Commons. Health Committee
Date:
1992
Catalogue details

Licence: Open Government Licence

Credit: Maternity services. Volume II, Minutes of evidence. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    6 November 1991 ] [Continued providers: experience of the contracting procedures increased.] September 1991 Chairman 797. Minister, can I welcome you to this, the first meeting of the Select Committee in the new Session. You know the reason for your being here. Would it perhaps be appropriate, Minister, if | ask you to begin by perhaps giving the Committee a preliminary response to this Committee’s Report on Preconception which was published earlier today? (Mrs Bottomley) Indeed, Chairman, I should be only too happy to do so. Obviously we will want to study the report with great care before responding officially but at a preliminary stage certainly we welcome the Report. We appreciate the recognition of the significance of the “Health of the Nation” and the endorsement of the Government’s approach. Clearly, in preconception care the whole question of prevention is of the very greatest importance. We welcome the acknowledgement that preconception care is one facet of health promotion. A number of recent developments affect the report. We have, indeed, recently produced a report ‘““While you are Pregnant: Safe Eating and How to Avoid Infection from Food and Animals’. That was published by the Department on 22nd October. It gives advice about the risks from listeriosis and salmonellosis and offers other dietary and food hygiene advice. Also in recent weeks there has been a commitment from the Secretary of State for Education and Science that teaching about HIV and AIDS should be included in the National Curriculum for 11-14 year olds. I should also refer to the Aids Action Group, which I chair. This was set up in response to extremely worrying findings that one out of 200 pregnant women in, for instance, Lambeth are HIV positive, a very different picture from other parts of the country. There is a great need to address the question of health promotion and prevention and certainly your comments about the significance of education are important. No doubt the Secretary of State for Education and Science himself will wish to consider the Report carefully. Similarly, the comments in the Report about family planning services are significant. We have already begun to incorporate many of them in the guidelines that we are producing for the regional health authorities to assist them in their family planning reviews. As you know, the provision of family planning has changed over the years. It is only sixteen years since GPs first became involved in NHS family planning provision. Two out of three women go to their GP for advice. We must make sure it is high quality advice and that family planning clinics also fulfil their role—especially offering an alternative source of advice for younger members of the community. Similarly, the Report makes clear the important advice on the dangers of smoking, of drinking, of drug misuse in pregnancy. They are areas where, with Ministerial colleagues, we are involved in a number of initiatives. My colleague, Baroness Hooper, is involved in_ initiatives