Clause 1 - Meaning of ''NHS body'' and ''qualifying hospital patient''
Community Care (Delayed Discharges etc.) Bill
10:32 am
Mr Simon Burns (West Chelmsford, Conservative)
I am grateful for your guidance, Mr. McWilliam. I shall abide strictly by it. Can the Minister explain, with regard to a care trust such as that mentioned in the amendment, how the sum of £100 million announced by the Secretary of State will be distributed? Will it be distributed to a PCT or shared between a PCT, a care trust and an acute trust in a local area? How, as the hon. Member for Sutton and Cheam has already asked, was the figure of £100 million arrived at? Is it a blanket £100 million per annum for three years, or is it up to a maximum of £100 million?
Given that the Government have assessed that the cost of delayed discharge to care trusts, PCTs and acute trusts runs at about £180 million per year—a figure that has been reinforced by our research with social services departments—and that the level of fines anticipated by social services departments at current levels will be a similar figure, why £100 million? What will happen after three years, if there are still problems with delayed discharge and the money is not made available? I hope that the Minister will deal with all those points. They are an important factor in our consideration of how effective this part of the legislation will be.