Julia Cumberlege, Baroness Cumberlege
Julia Frances Cumberlege, Baroness Cumberlege, CBE, DSG, DL (born 27 January 1943) is a British Conservative Party politician and businesswoman. She was created a life peer in 1990 as Baroness Cumberlege, of Newick in the County of East Sussex.
Partial career background
Coming from a medical family, in 1992 she was appointed a Junior Health Minister and for five years covered all health and social services matters in the House of Lords. She was also the Sponsor Minister for the city of Plymouth responsible for regeneration and a budget of £45 million per year. In 1997 she was Opposition Spokesperson for Health.
In the House of Lords in 2000 on the subject of the Britain's National Health Service, remarking that "We are all trapped in a marvellously pure ideology, the ideal socialist dream", she advocated removing the requirement that the NHS be free at the point of use, replacing it with "an NHS insurance premium", and that "allowances could be made for those with private insurance and private expertise could be used". She also said that "The NHS ought not to exclude as a matter of principle the private sector" stating that "Competition is both a spur and a discipline". She said the government should try "putting a hospital or two under private management", noting private prisons as a "precedent", but that "If that is a bridge too far, we could try running one or more trusts as co-operatives with staff owning all the shares".
In 2010 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Nursing.[1]
Business venture
In 2001 she launched her own company, Cumberlege Connections Ltd.
Affiliations
- Trustee, Cancer Research UK
- Senior Associate, The King's Fund.
- Co-chair, Associate Parliamentary Health Group and the All Party Parliamentary Osteoporosis Group
- Secretary, Dying Well Parliamentary Group
- Vice President, Royal Society for Public Health
- Honorary Fellow, Royal College of Physicians
- Vice President of the Royal Colleges of Nursing and Midwives
- Chair of Trustees, Chailey Heritage School
- President, Age UK East Sussex
- Patron, Pregnancy Sickness Support
Religious views
A Roman Catholic, she spoke at the Catholic Medical Association (formerly the Guild of Catholic Doctors)'s conference in Bristol in April 2009, officiated by Archbishop Peter Smith.[2]
Sex abuse in the Catholic Church
In 2006-07, Lady Cumberlege chaired a commission reviewing the approach of the Catholic Church in England and Wales to child protection.
References
- ↑ Rolls of Honour, Royal College of Nursing, 2011. Retrieved 15 August 2011.
- ↑ April 2009 Catholic Medical Association conference