Clause 11 - Power of Secretary of State to give financial assistance
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
3:30 pm
Dr Evan Harris (Oxford West and Abingdon, Liberal Democrat)
The Minister has not mentioned the way in which the independent sector will behave within the tariff arrangement. What is to stop that sector from charging less than the tariff, particularly for easy cases, leaving the NHS with the difficult cases. Some purchasers, desperate to find ways of obtaining capacity so that they are not labelled a failing commissioner by the Government, may be willing to pay that sector over national tariff for the NHS, allowing it to use the extra resources to compete in a way that the NHS is unable to respond to because it is constrained by the tariff? At some point, the Minister will have to clarify how there will be fairness in a market between the independent sector and the NHS with an NHS tariff arrangement.