Baroness Julia Cumberlege was appointed a Junior Health Minister in 1992 and for five years she covered all Health and Social Services matters in the House of Lords.
She has been commissioned by two Governments to produce two national reports: “Neighbourhood Nursing – a Focus for Care” and “Changing Childbirth”.
At the invitation of the Royal College of Physicians, Julia has chaired two working parties. The first report “Doctors in Society” was published in December 2005. The second, “Future Physician, Changing Doctors in Changing Times”, was published in May 2010.
From 2000 until July 2006, Julia chaired St George’s Medical School.
In 2010 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Royal College of Nursing.
In 2015 she conducted a review of maternity services for NHS England in 2015. The report of the review, Better Births, recommended that all women should have the choice to give birth where they want, with the support of the same midwife throughout pregnancy, labour and the early weeks of motherhood, with control over a personal maternity care budget.
In February 2018, she was appointed by the Health Secretary, Jeremy Hunt, to chair the Independent Medicines and Medical Devices Security Review, investigating reports from women patients about harmful side effects from medicines and medical devices, and how the health service had responded. The Review was reported in July 2020. It dealt with oral pregnancy test Primodos, anti-epilepsy drug sodium valproate, and pelvic mesh repairs.
