Olympic Games 2012

Question

14:45:00

Asked By

Lord Addington
To ask Her Majesty’s Government what steps they are taking to meet their commitment to the International Olympic Committee that there will be a sufficient number of Sport and Exercise Medicine consultants to support the 2012 Olympic Games.

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, we are committed to fulfilling our bid commitment that there will be two doctors with sport medicine experience at every sports venue and we are working closely with the London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games to achieve this.

Lord Addington
My Lords, I thank the Minister for that response, but is she aware that the recruitment pattern shows that people are withdrawing from the sport and exercise medicine training scheme because no consultancy posts are available at the end? As part of a legacy issue, what will this mean for the Government’s target of having 1 million people taking exercise and doing sport, or will we allow them to do so only if they do not get soft tissue injuries?

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, part of the legacy, as the noble Lord is well aware—he has been actively involved—is the creation of a faculty of sport and exercise medicine and the provision of consultants. That has already started. Seventeen consultants are now being trained, with a five-year training period. They will help to support the Olympic Games but they are, more importantly, part of the legacy. As the noble Lord will be aware, all the planning for NHS workforces is done locally, so the department is working with the planners at local level to ensure that the SEM consultants are integrated into local forward planning and the specialty is integrated in the NHS.

Baroness Gardner of Parkes
My Lords, will the host country have to provide all these experts or will various competing countries bring people with them and, if so, how will they work together?

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, the host country is responsible for what happens in the sports venues but, as the noble Baroness will be aware, many countries bring their own medical staff, so we also have an integrating and co-ordinating job to do. Many of the smaller countries are dependent on the UK providing them with some support before the Games to train their staff. That is integrated into the planning.

Baroness Trumpington
My Lords, when we have the doctors, will there be enough places in hospitals in London?

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, the noble Baroness points to the very important matter of backfilling. As she will be aware, we will recruit volunteers. That recruitment starts towards the end of this year; the job descriptions will be written over the summer. We have set up a committee within the department to plan the backfilling. We have no intention of lowering any of the standards of provision, either in hospitals or in relation to doctors across the capital. We are keen that our medical expertise should be used to support the Games.

Lord Foulkes of Cumnock
My Lords, does my noble friend recall that the 2014 Commonwealth Games are to be held in Glasgow? What co-operation and discussions are there between the Government and the Scottish Executive about mutual co-operation and assistance on this and other matters?

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, any major sporting event between now and the Games is, of course, an important dry run to make sure that we achieve the right kind of medical support at the Olympic Games. The team within the department that is responsible for planning this is indeed working with the Scottish Executive, both to support them in their efforts for the Commonwealth Games and to make sure that we use that as a training ground for the medical expertise that we will need for the Olympic Games.

Lord Mawson
My Lords, will the Minister please say what evidence there is that the Mayor of London and his team grasp the scale of the opportunity in east London presented by the Games outside the 11-mile blue fence that surrounds the Olympic Park? What steps are they taking to promote the Water City vision for the place and the people, which is in all the documentation about the future of the area? What practical steps are they taking to engage with social entrepreneurs and social enterprise, which both main parties say are central to their thinking? I declare an interest as a promoter of the wider Water City vision.

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, the noble Lord is going slightly wide of the mark of the subject of medical help. However, as he will know, I am very sympathetic to his work in promoting social enterprise across London and particularly in east London. I know that the mayor and the mayoral office have been active in trying to bring that forward and to ensure that small businesses and social enterprises play a part in the construction and delivery of the Games.

Baroness Tonge
My Lords, I bring the Minister back to the essential problem, which is that there are not enough consultants in sport and exercise medicine. There are not enough being trained, there are not enough posts and there are not enough career pathways. If we add to that the fact that the Government are encouraging everyone between the ages of 40 and 74—although I am not quite sure why there is that cut-off point—to take more physical exercise, would she agree that it might be better if we followed the dictum of the late Max Beerbohm, who said that whenever he felt the need to take exercise he simply lay down until it wore off?

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, I thought that it was George Bernard Shaw who said that. The noble Baroness raises an important point, but the point about the medical staff whom we need to deliver the support for the Olympic Games is not that they should all be consultants; the important point is that we have the right doctors in the right place with the right experience. I just make the point that, week in and week out, we have medical staff and doctors on football pitches and at athletic events across the UK and theirs is the experience that we will draw on. However, we are committed to the growth of this speciality and to making sure that the jobs are there for the young doctors who commit to becoming sports consultants.

Lord Mawhinney
My Lords, the Question refers to the commitment made by the Government to the Olympic authority that there would be a sufficient number of consultants. In this context, will the Minister tell the House what number would constitute a sufficiency?

Baroness Thornton
My Lords, the commitment made in the bid was not about consultants but about doctors who are qualified to do the job to support the Games. We are committed to creating medical consultants for sports and exercise as part of the legacy. That is the point.