Schedule 1 - Constitution of public benefit corporations
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
4:45 pm
Dr Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
The Under-Secretary's response to my last intervention was silly because the point that I was making was not that there should not be a line. Clearly, when there has to be a line, there will be an arbitrary distinction on the basis of where one lives. However, if one is bothered enough to be a patient, and has that sufficient interest, surely it is not unreasonable, as the amendment proposes, to extend the franchise to family members of that patient, even though they live outside the line. I am not saying that there should not be a residential qualification, and the Under-Secretary knows that that is not what I am saying.
If one is already a patient, even living outside the line, there will be no distortion because the numbers are small and one has a sufficient interest. I am asking the Under-Secretary how she can justify excluding those people. That is not trying to have it both ways and she knows it.