Clause 40 - Quality in health care
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
3:30 pm
Mr Simon Burns (West Chelmsford, Conservative)
I listened carefully to the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon, and I have a lot of sympathy with the thrust of the points that he made. He is trying to push further forward efforts to improve the nation's health, which he describes in amendment No. 163 as ''wellbeing''. However, I am not persuaded that he is offering anything new in relation to the Bill.
I imagine that clause 40(2)(a) and (b) constitute a fairly wide, catch-all definition across the whole area of illness prevention and health promotion. Subsection (2)(b) deals with
''the promotion and protection of public health.''
That covers a vast area in seeking to enhance the nation's health. The hon. Gentleman may say that it is a belt-and-braces operation, but it looks like overkill, because the point that he makes seems—I certainly do not want to be the Under-Secretary's spokesman—to be already covered in the Bill. I am not persuaded that it is necessary to make the amendments basically to flannel out this aspect of the legislation.