Clause 52 - National reviews
Health and Social Care(Community Health and Standards) Bill
2:45 pm
Mr Chris Grayling (Epsom and Ewell, Conservative)
I have two questions for the Under-Secretary. First, will the extension of the inspection powers to individuals permit CHAI to inspect complementary practitioners that are used alongside NHS trusts? The Under-Secretary will be aware that, increasingly, complementary medical practitioners, such as osteopaths and chiropractors, are operating in local medical centres and sometimes in hospitals. I should be grateful if the Under-Secretary made it clear whether they come under the umbrella of inspections set out in the changes that he has just outlined.
Secondly, I want to inquire about the inspection regime for the laboratories that were part of the Public Health Laboratory Service until the formation of the Health Protection Agency on 1 April. The Under-Secretary will be aware that, until 1 April, a number of laboratories fell within the ambit of the Public Health Laboratory Service. They were sited in hospitals around the country and provided, in particular, microbiology support to the health service. They were also part of the network monitoring diseases, outbreaks and epidemics nationwide. As of 1 April, those laboratories have almost totally moved to
national health service trusts. They are now sited in, and owned and managed by, the trusts in whose premises they formally sat.
The Under-Secretary has made the point that the special health authorities—the Health Protection Agency is a special health authority—are exempt from inspection by CHAI. Will he explain the inspection regime for the former Public Health Laboratory Service laboratories? Are they simply covered by the process of CHAI inspecting a trust, or will CHAI carry out some form of inspection of the work of laboratories generally? Will the National Audit Office retain any kind of assessment role of the work that laboratories do and the part that they play in the national work of the Health Protection Agency?