Clause 16 - Protection of property
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
12:15 pm
Mr Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
The hon. Gentleman has made an interesting point, which I will be happy to consider and which, I hope, Ministers will consider. If the Minister accepts the general direction in which the amendment is trying to take the Bill, we will be perfectly happy to see a different draft that takes into account the circumstances that the hon. Gentleman has described.
This amendment is not intended to change the protections that the Government have afforded NHS patients through the Bill. It attempts to reflect the practical nature of the job of today's NHS managers. The amendment accepts that foundation trusts will have to evolve and change the services that they offer, and the amendment will ensure that they have the flexibility to do so.
The regulator should be there as a watchdog to ensure that, in changing services, managers do not remove from patients the resources, the property, the assets or the means of delivering those services. The amendment gives managers the freedom to make the decisions that they need to make in response to a changing world.