Clause 1 - English health authorities: change of name
NHS Reform and Health Care Professions Bill
11:00 am
Mr Simon Burns (West Chelmsford, Conservative)
I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman. I appreciate that language is important. I was trying to be realistic about what is happening, rather than fall into the Millbank spin. He will appreciate that language will become more important if the Secretary of State has his way and brings back the internal market, about which Government Members have been so rude for the past few years. However, I digress.
Health authorities, which have been localised to cover smaller areas than the proposed SHAs, will be abolished in the next four or five months if the proposed time scale is kept to—and it will be. Many of their functions will be transferred down to PCTs, which will cause a problem because at least 130 primary care groups have not even applied for PCT status. There will be a headlong rush if the Government are to have all the PCTs in place before the 1 April 2002 deadline. Everyone knows that when structures change—especially when significant additional responsibilities and functions are placed on those structures—there is great uncertainty and a sense of feeling the way forward. Do Government want such a situation to arise? Do they fully appreciate the implications of what they are doing within their proposed time scale?
SHAs will be discussed in detail in connection with later amendments. They, too, will be finding their way in the early stages following their creation. I suspect--the Minister may be able to enlighten us--that there is conflict in several areas: for example, have the SHAs' geographical areas been resolved satisfactorily? I presume not, because that is one of the matters that the consultation process is to examine. Stories are beginning to circulate of people in some parts of the country being confused about why their geographical area is to have only one or two strategic health authorities whereas another area, perhaps in the same region but geographically separate, is to have significantly more SHAs covering its population.
Staffing will need to be arranged. It is fair that the Government have time scales for appointing chairmen and chief executives designate, but SHAs will need other staff. Their full role will need to be sorted out and the way in which the Government want them to fulfil their functions will have to be made clear. We must also examine the functions that the health authorities have had, in particular the handling of health service funding, which is to pass from the SHAs to the PCTs. I suspect that that will raise many problems if care is not taken, mainly because the new bodies will lack experience.
I urge the Minister to say more about the progress of the consultations and the time scale between now and 1 April 2002, especially the crucial issue of whether there will be enough time to have in place bodies that are fully competent and capable of fulfilling their functions on 1 April 2002. They might not have enough time to prepare.