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Health and Social Care Bill
8:00 pm
Mr John Hutton (Minister of State, Department of Health; Barrow and Furness, Labour)
I am sad to say that the hon. Gentleman is not here, so I shall continue with the speech that I was making before we were interrupted. During our debate, several specific issues were raised that I would like to refer to before we move on to the substantive issues of principle behind some of the amendments.
The hon. Gentleman—I hope that he will be able to shine some more light on the issue when he returns—drew our attention to incidents in which residents in care homes had been charged for services provided by general practitioners. GPs have no basis on which to charge for those services. The National Health Service Act 1977 makes it clear that NHS services are free of charge, so there is no provision enabling charges to be made for GP services in care homes.
I understand that the voluntary organisation that sponsored the report mentioned by the hon. Gentleman drew the problem to the attention of my officials some weeks ago. My officials asked for a copy of the report, so that the specific examples and quotations could be investigate, but we have yet to receive it. I would be grateful if the hon. Gentleman sent me a copy, so that I could make necessary inquiries to find out what has happened in individual cases. There is no basis for charging for those services and if it is taking place we must get to the bottom of it as soon as possible.
The hon. Member for Runnymede and Weybridge made several comments about alternative ways to fund long-term residential care, including the possibility of long-term care insurance. I understand that the hon. Member for West Chelmsford was a strong supporter of the previous Government's partnership proposals for such insurance, and was a Minister when the right hon. Member for Charnwood made them.
I am sure that I will be corrected if I am wrong, but I think that the Leader of the Opposition announced last year that a future Conservative Government would match insurance at a rate of 50p in the pound. However, the 1997 proposals suggested matching insurance pound for pound.