Clause 12 - Further functions of the Commission for Health Improvement
NHS Reform & Health Care Professions
11:30 am
Mr Simon Burns (West Chelmsford, Conservative)
The amendment is in my name and those of my hon. Friends the Members for Woodspring (Dr. Fox) and for North-East Hertfordshire (Mr. Heald). I make no bones about the fact that the British Medical Association recommended it to us. In many ways, it is a probing amendment. As the Minister is aware, the British Medical Association supported the establishment of CHI in 1999, and has not wavered in its support. As was said when we debated the previous clause, the main function was to consider the question of duty of care and enhance the quality of care, and a function of CHI is to monitor the quality of care provided in the health service to ensure that it meets the highest standards.
I hope that the Minister can reassure us on the danger that may result from the fact that several different bodies have responsibility for visiting, inspecting and monitoring the services and quality of care provided by NHS trusts and GPs' surgeries. Those bodies include CHI itself, the medical royal colleges and the Audit Commission. If the relevant clauses remain in the Bill and the Bill becomes law, patients forums may also carry out inquiries into areas of health care at all levels. Most visits that those bodies make will be appropriate to the fulfilment of their functions, but there is a danger that without co-ordination, visits from and inspections by the various organisations and bodies will cause disruption to trusts and GPs' surgeries. The amendment would ensure that co-ordination. I am sure that the Government do not intend such disruption to be the
by-product of their changes, which should improve and enhance patient care and the performance of the health service.
The Minister is probably aware that when Ofsted plans to visit a school, it gives the school advanced warning. Teachers, parents and pupils in all schools—I say ''all schools'' because I cannot believe that the school of which I am a governor in Chelmsford is an exception—give a great deal of time and effort to ensure that they are ready for a visit. That causes some disruption and a distortion of effort and energy that would otherwise be given to the education of young people. One can imagine something similar happening in the health service. A trust or a GP's surgery, in which employees are less familiar with visits from people who inspect their activities, will make preparations in time for the visit. That will involve extra effort when GPs and their staff already feel overburdened with bureaucracy and rising patient expectations, and may distort and even diminish patient care in some circumstances.
Therefore, without seeking to undermine the functions and duties of the bodies and organisations that carry out inspections or visits, there is a logic to seeking to co-ordinate the activities of those bodies to avoid placing an undue burden on trusts or GPs' surgeries. Will the Minister consider that point? I shall be interested to hear whether he shares the BMA's concern or regards it as an unfounded worry and thinks that, in practice, everything will be fine.