Clause 32 - Reviews of pilot schemes
Health and Social Care Bill
11:15 am
Mr Philip Hammond (Runnymede and Weybridge, Conservative)
Clause 32 provides for reviews of pilot schemes. That is progress indeed and has saved me the trouble of drafting an amendment requiring a review and the publication of its results. We are particularly sensitive, as the Minister will know from previous debates, to the speed with which NHS Direct was rolled out, without proper appraisal of its strengths and weaknesses. The review requirement is a good one. Does the Minister expect reviews to be conducted by outside bodies or by health authorities?
Amendments Nos. 277 and 276 would have quite different effects. Amendment No. 276 would extend the review to cover various areas, one of which we have already discussed—the impact of the pilot scheme on retail competition. It would also require an examination of the cost effectiveness to the NHS of the pilot scheme and its impact on patient services. As guardians of public services and the public purse we would all reasonably expect the review to cover those points. I hope that the Minister will agree in principle that that is necessary. Perhaps he will propose another way to achieve that objective.
Amendment No. 277 would reduce from three to two the number of years after which a review should take place. The review might take a little while to complete; amendment No. 276 proposes that a report should be published not less than three months later. If the review process did not start until three years into the scheme, publication might not happen until four years after the scheme got under way. It seems reasonable that the review should begin after the scheme had been in existence two years. That should provide enough data.