Clause 50 - National performance data
Health and Social Care (Community Health and Standards) Bill
9:45 am
Mr Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
Amendment No. 418 in the name of the hon. Member for Oxford, West and Abingdon would permit the Secretary of State to exclude certain categories of data, relating to the performance of English NHS bodies and cross-border SHAs, from the responsibility of CHAI, under subsection (1), on the grounds that publication of such data would prejudice the efficiency of the NHS.
Clearly, these probing amendments have been tabled to extract from the Under-Secretary clear information about performance data. He said earlier that he did not believe that it was the responsibility of
CHAI to measure the quality of treatment, and I will return to that in the debate on the next two clauses.
Will the Under-Secretary clarify whether he expects national performance data from CHAI to reflect the quality and outcomes of health care, as well as the provision and nature of the processes that take place in the NHS? It is fundamentally important that in all the data and measurement of action that take place in the NHS trusts, there is a significant swing of the pendulum away from the process towards quality. We have already debated that, but I want clarification from the Under-Secretary on how far the Government will go in permitting CHAI to assess the quality and outcomes of health care and whether the NHS actually makes people better.