Clause 10 - Health care provision: standards
Health Protection Agency Bill [Lords]
10:30 am
Dr Andrew Murrison (Shadow Minister, Public Services, Health & Education; Westbury, Conservative)
This clause deals with the inspection of the agency by the Commission for Healthcare Audit and Inspection and will be a bit of a departure for the latter body, because CHAI normally examines other parts of the NHS that have to do with patient care—hospital trusts, by and large. This function will be something separate.
CHAI's function in relation to hospital trusts is now clear. The path is a well trodden one and the expertise that CHAI has built up is extremely useful. I am a little concerned that the new departure will entail a new set of skills for CHAI, as well as a new way of working. I am also interested to know what form the Minister thinks the inspection and report will take. Given the sensitivity of some of the work that will be carried out by the agency, it will be interesting also to know whether any report by CHAI will be considered not to be in the public domain—and, in that case, to whom it will go.
It is all very well to say that CHAI will be involved in the inspection of the agency, but we need more detail about exactly what part of its work will be inspected. The Bill gives no real clue about that. I hope that the Minister will be able to give us some insight into how she envisages CHAI operating in the context of the Health Protection Agency—what reports might be presented, or, indeed, withheld. Furthermore, will
she assure us that the skills that CHAI currently has will be adequate and sufficient for the inspection of what is a rather unusual organisation for it to be concerned with?