Margot James MP addresses the Pharmaceutical Marketing Society at its 3rd Annual Lecture
Speaking on behalf of the PM Society, Education Committee Chairman, Ivor Eisenstadt welcomed Margot James MP, the speaker for the PM Society's 2010 Annual Lecture – held on Thursday 10th June at Le Meridien Piccadilly.
Speaking to the industry for the first time since being elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Stourbridge at the recent General Election, Margot provided the audience of key industry and service company guests with insight into the views of the new coalition Government on where she believes the NHS is headed and the role of the Industry in the new Government's healthcare agenda.
Margot began by saying that although political life was now her sole purpose, the pharmaceutical industry remained very important to her and has a very special place in her heart. Since founding Shire Health in 1986, Margot said that the developments in our industry had been phenomenal. Those were the days; pre-Tamoxifen for breast cancer and where lack of treatments for mental health conditions such as schizophrenia meant patients could only be treated in mental institutions. These extraordinary changes have come about due to the research and development that the pharmaceutical industry undertakes and we should be proud of what our industry has achieved in this time.
However, the regulatory burden is now so great that the UK is haemorrhaging its clinical research base to Eastern Europe and the Far East; something that Health Secretary Andrew Lansley wants to address in order to retain the clinical research base in the UK.
Margot went on to say that there have been unbelievable changes in the NHS since 1997 when the Labour Government took power. Up until that point, she said that the Conservative party had a coherent plan for the NHS with fund holding and NHS Trusts. She believes that the first few years of the last Government turned the clock back on NHS reform. Only since 2002 have the reforms been reinstated and it took some years and many structural changes for the NHS to virtually get back to where it was in 1997.
Margot talked about how the NHS fitted in to David Cameron's wider vision for the country as a whole. The new government wants to devolve greater powers and responsibilities to citizens and professionals, empowering people to take control over their lives and have greater choice. There is to be less state interference and intrusion in to people's lives.
Policies on healthcare and the NHS fit in to this wider vision. Professionals will have far greater scope to use their own judgement under the new policy. They will be free to exercise that judgement in the interests of patients rather than always in response to Whitehall driven targets. The NHS will be held accountable by outcomes and less by process driven targets.
Patients and families too will have a greater say, the service will be accountable to patients at a local level.
Andrew Lansley has a passion for the NHS and has been shadowing the role of Secretary of State for Health for 6 and a half years.
Speaking about what opportunities there might be for Industry, Margot believes that Pharma companies have huge experience to offer the NHS. Not just in the supply of medicines, but to help the NHS and the journey it is taking. She is hoping that the new Government will release the inertia that has been present.
She believes that opportunities exist for industry and the NHS to work together in a number of areas including:
- Data collection and analysis that could be put at the disposal of the NHS
- Value based pricing
- The ability to work positively with NICE
- Clinical research and development
She believes NICE will move on from producing individual audits of a drug's clinical and economic benefit, towards assessing the overall management and treatment options in a disease area. Andrew Lansley has said that it is 'scandalous' that patients don't have access to certain modern treatments that are available elsewhere in Western Europe, notably new cancer drugs.
Margot went on to say that she thinks that David Willetts, Minister of State at the Department for Business Innovation and Skills with responsibility of higher education and science will be an important player as far as the pharmaceutical industry is concerned. David Willetts is a thoughtful and considered person who is looking for evidence based policies. He will be appointing scientific advisors and has already stated they will be permitted to express their views
Summing up, Margot said that the new coalition Government wants to support industry and support manufacturing and it is essential that the Pharma industry and life sciences get the support they need in order to retain the world class reputation Britain has for scientific research and development.
A lively question and answer session followed Margot's lecture, which discussed a number of different areas:
When asked whether she though the PPRS scheme would be renegotiated, Margot said that 'yes' she thought it would, although was not certain who would be responsible for this on the Government's side. Undoubtedly Andrew Lansley would be involved in such negotiations himself.
In a question about NICE and whether she thought it might be restructured – Margot answered by saying that she thought the remit of NICE would change. The Government want to see improvements in patients access to medicines, therefore purely looking at the most 'cost effective' options and individual drug assessments need to be stepped away from and Lord Howe will have responsibility for NICE and any changes in restructure and remit within the Government.
She confirmed that the Government were not anti-public sector, but that they wanted to get more dynamism into the delivery of public services. She said that within the House of Commons, MPs are very well served. Everything seems to work for the benefit of members and she would like to see public services working as efficiently as this.
Margot believes that currently there are too many layers within some sectors. The bureaucracy and conflict of the different agencies that may be involved in delivering a service to a patient can be confusing and costly. The Government needs to get on top of this and hand commissioning to primary care thus reducing the role of PCTs. She said the Government want to decentralise 'localism' and devolve decision-making and get rid of the tension that exists to create a framework that nudges change but does not enforce it – a delayering process.
When asked what she would like to see changed, Margot answered that she wanted to see Research and Development in the UK. Also, that she would like to see changes in the Department of Health and the NHS, rather than the industry having to change. She regrets the views of many, who have a suspicious and distrustful view of the industry, however she thinks that Francis Maude MP, Minister for the Cabinet Office and Paymaster General might help to change this entrenched mindset of the Civil Service.
The way in which we are going to see real change will be to release resources from hospitals and to reduce management layers throughout the NHS. However when asked if the Government was prepared to close hospitals Margot answered that Andrew Lansley's view is very cautious when it comes to closing hospitals, there have been too many examples of hospitals closing on the theoretical pretext that their work can be channelled elsewhere only for the reality to prove the opposite.
Margot James MP was elected as Conservative Member of Parliament for Stourbridge in the May 2010 election. She has been involved in politics since her student days when she was chairman of the London School of Economics Conservative Association and worked as a researcher for Sir Anthony Durant MP. During her gap year, Margot worked in the press office of Conservative Central Office.
Margot James was selected as the Conservative Party's parliamentary candidate for Stourbridge in 2006 and has been the Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party since 2005.
After graduating Margot started work for Maurice James Industries (MJI), a business started by her father in the 1930s. Beginning with just one lorry delivering coal, MJI ended up with haulage, waste management, and property interests in and around Birmingham and an engineering company in Wolverhampton. Margot worked in sales and marketing gaining valuable experience in business across the West Midlands.
Margot went on to work for a consulting firm and then in 1986 co-founded her own company, Shire Health, a PR and medical education business. Shire Health was voted 'Consultancy of the Year' three times and Margot was voted Communicator of the Year in 1997. After twelve years running the business Margot sold Shire Health to the WPP Group and was appointed Head of European Healthcare for WPP's advertising agency Ogilvy & Mather.
As well as her business interests Margot has for many years been involved in the voluntary sector and the NHS. She served on the board of Parkside NHS Trust for four years and she has worked as a Mental Health Manager. She spent ten years as a trustee of Abantu, an African women's charity, during which time she trained women from more than forty different African countries in communications and lobbying skills. She has also worked as a mentor for the Prince's Trust and Young Enterprise.
At the end of 2005 Margot was appointed by David Cameron to the position of Vice Chairman of the Conservative Party for women's issues. She formed the Women's Policy Group under the chairmanship of Eleanor Laing MP and is contributing to the policy review process underway in the Conservative Party.
In 2006 Margot was elected as a Councillor in Kensington & Chelsea. She stood down in 2008 to concentrate on her work in Stourbridge, but during her time as a Councillor she chaired a review of older people's accommodation in Kensington & Chelsea. Margot was selected as the Conservative Party candidate for the constituency of Stourbridge, thirty miles from where she was born, in December 2006.
Held on: 10/06/2010