Clause 60 - Extension of prescribing rights
Health and Social Care Bill
3:30 pm
Mr John Denham (Minister of State, Department of Health; Southampton, Itchen, Labour)
The amendment raises a series of interesting issues. As the hon. Member for New Forest, West said, it would give Ministers the power by order to require new prescribers to carry indemnity insurance. It is possible to see both sides of the argument. In some cases, legislative powers already exist—for instance, the Health Act 1999 provides the power to regulate new professions. On the other hand, the vast majority of registered health professionals already carry indemnity cover through their membership of professional organisations or trade unions. For example, physiotherapists and chiropodists carry indemnity insurance through their membership of their professional bodies, the Chartered Society of Physiotherapists and the Society of Chiropodists and Podiatrists. The UKCC, which is the statutory regulatory body for nurses, midwives and health visitors, strongly advises all nurses in practice to have indemnity insurance through one of the professional organisations or trade unions. Of course, where new prescribers are employed by an NHS trust or primary care trust, NHS employers' liability will apply.
As Committee members will know, the Health Act 1999 gave us the ability to require indemnity insurance for general medical and dental practitioners and the facility to extend that requirement to optometrists or pharmacists, the need for which we are keeping under review. For other professions, it is currently a matter for guidance and strong recommendation by the existing regulatory bodies.
I have thought carefully, and I think the issue is whether clause 60 is the right place for the provision and whether it should be specifically in relation to prescribing, or whether at some point it should be addressed more generally under the law relating to professions. My feeling is that this is not the appropriate place to take this measure although I recognise the arguments—and the reasons for them. The hon. Gentleman expressed some awareness of the dilemmas that are involved. If we were to be persuaded, however, that there was a need to enforce professions to have liability insurance, we should apply such a measure to the professions and not necessarily just in relation to clause 60 of this Bill.