Clause 16 - Entry and Inspection of Premises
NHS Reform & Health Care Professions Bill
2:30 pm
Ms Hazel Blears (Parliamentary Under-Secretary (public health), Department of Health; Salford, Labour)
I hope that the amendments will be straightforward. As I said this morning, amendment No. 156 does not represent a change in policy. We have always intended that patients forums should have a right to inspect any premises in England where patients go to receive health care. That includes premises owned or controlled by Welsh national health service bodies and local authority premises where services are provided under a section 31 agreement with the local authority.
Until the proposed structural changes to the NHS in Wales in the Bill were introduced, Welsh NHS bodies were covered by the original wording of the clause. After the changes, trusts will still be covered in Wales, but not the new health boards and health authorities that will be created. In the case of local authorities, provision is made under the duties of patients forums outlined in clause 15 to extend the forums' functions to services provided pursuant to a section 31 arrangement. Those services may be provided on local authority premises. The amendment puts right an omission by allowing the forums entry rights to such premises. The amendment as it relates to local authority premises has the agreement of the Local Government Association, which will be consulted on the finer detail of the regulations.
I turn to amendment No. 157. Under clause 15 the forums' functions extend to health-related services provided under section 31 arrangements with a local authority. Therefore, entry rights must properly be extended to cover such premises, to ensure consistency. ''Local authority'' must be given the same meaning there as in section 31 of the Health Act 1999. The amendments are designed to tidy up; they ensure that patients forums can have entry wherever NHS patients from England are being treated.