Clause 9 - Public Involvement and Consultation
Health and Social Care Bill
5:30 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
Essentially, the reason for not including special health authorities is that by 2002, when the scrutiny committee procedure is in place, there will not be special health authorities providing services directly to patients, certainly in the way that we have been discussing. At present there are 17 special health authorities, but only the three special hospitals—Broadmoor, Ashworth and Rampton—provider health services directly to patients. The others provide a service to the NHS or carry out some other health service function on a national basis, for example the Prescription Pricing Authority, which administers prescriptions and payments to pharmacists.