Clause 16 - Intervention orders
Health and Social Care Bill
11:45 am
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
The consultation document says that red organisations will be those that are failing to meet one or more of the core national targets or that demonstrate serious service failure. This document is out to consultation. It is possible to produce a core set of targets whereby unless three, five or seven targets have been met, the organisation will automatically be deemed to be red light. It is equally possible to have a situation where a failure to meet one target would not necessarily trigger red-light status. The point of consultation with the NHS is to invite views on the group of services to be linked to the measures and the way in which the red-light traffic light should be applied. I acknowledge that the hon. Gentleman has a fair point, but it is not one that we need to resolve now. It would be better to have input from the service.