Clause 22 - Unsuitability for inclusion in medical, dental,ophthalmic and pharmaceutical etc. lists
Health and Social Care Bill
2:45 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
If only the hon. Gentleman had listened when I said that there was one important qualification that I would discuss in due course. In fact, I am coming to it just about now.
Although we are discussing clause 22, it is important to distinguish between the different roles of various clauses, such as those on refusing or permitting admittance to the list, removal from the list—which we shall discuss later—and suspension from it. In my view, the grounds for refusing admission to, or removing someone from, the list need to be sufficiently broad to capture all cases that might arise. Suspension, however, is a different process. Given its nature, suspension should be a neutral act. It is undertaken when serious allegations have not been proven, or while further investigations take place.
It is relevant to recognise that the wording of amendment No. 174 is drawn from a particular part of the Medical Act 1983. That wording is the test that should be applied by the GMC's interim orders committee, under which interim suspension orders can be made. I think it a good idea to import that wording into the clause dealing with suspensions. It sets a helpful precedent, and has attractions in defining the circumstances in which suspension might be appropriate. The wording captures both the notion of a risk to the patient, and that of a wider risk to the NHS or the public good.
I should like to signal now that when we discuss clause 26 we shall propose to adopt the wording of the amendment as the basis for a Government amendment to be tabled on Report, which will set out the circumstances in which a health authority may suspend a practitioner. That will leave this clause with a similar architecture of health authority powers to those in the Medical Act 1983. The test on suspension would be the wording used by the hon. Gentleman in his amendment.
The test for disqualification, removal and refusal to admit to a list will be a broader power. When the professional conduct committee of the General Medical Council decides whether to disqualify a practitioner, the grounds for serious professional misconduct are broader than those used for suspension. I hope that the hon. Gentleman will accept that we have recognised the force of his argument—if not in relation to clause 22, then certainly in relation to the suspension powers in clause 26. We shall table an amendment on Report to reflect that.
I now turn to the Government amendments. Amendment No. 116 introduces provisions to underpin the application process for medical lists. It provides for regulations setting out information that a doctor on the medical list must provide. We intend that those regulations will largely replicate health authority procedures. They will include matters such as medical and vocational qualifications, career history, declarations on criminal convictions and adverse regulatory body judgments, and references, which is all information that any good employer would require from someone seeking work. Being clear that we will make that check will deter dishonesty.
Amendment No. 117 addresses consistency. The Bill already provides for health authorities to refuse applications to join supplementary and services lists in certain circumstances. There would be no logic in providing grounds by which a person could be refused admission to the supplementary and services lists that did not equally apply to decisions by health authorities on admission to their existing medical list. The amendment clearly and unambiguously provides the means of introducing that.
The amendment also provides grounds on which a health authority could defer an application—for example, where it was known that the applicant was facing a criminal charge that would be likely to make him unsuitable to provide general medical services were he found guilty. Furthermore, the amendment allows regulations to be made to allow the Secretary of State to prescribe circumstances where a person cannot be admitted by a health authority to its medical list—for example, where the person had been convicted of murder or sentenced to more than six months' imprisonment.