Statement from Baroness Julia Cumberlege CBE and the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP
Responding to the publication of a Written Ministerial Statement on the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review, Baroness Julia Cumberlege CBE and the Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP said:
“We welcome the government’s acceptance of four of the Review’s nine recommendations and a further one in principle. We are particularly pleased there will now be a Patient Safety Commissioner, and we urge the government to move swiftly to appoint the person and establish the post. We are confident that the Commissioner will be able to reduce the risk of avoidable harm in future, and spare individuals and families from the appalling consequences witnessed by the IMMDS Review.
“But we are deeply disappointed the government has rejected calls for an independent redress agency or any redress for families whose lives have been devastated by medicines or medical devices. For those families justice has not been done today.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors
Jeremy Hunt MP is Chair of the House of Commons Health and Social Care Select Committee.
Baroness Cumberlege was Chair of the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Safety Review.
She and Jeremy Hunt MP are Co-Chairs of the First Do No Harm All-Party Parliamentary Group www.firstdonoharmappg.org.uk.
For more information contact the Group’s Secretariat at Luther Pendragon via fdnh@luther.co.uk.
