Clause 35 - General ophthalmic services contracts
Health Bill
12:45 pm
Andrew Murrison (Shadow Minister, Health; Westbury, Conservative)
The logic of the Minister's argument must therefore be that there should be some central list, because it appears that the issue is a contractual one between individuals or organisations—to take a chain at random, let us consider Specsavers, which has been mentioned before and has operations across the country—and the NHS. Perhaps she would like to explore the possibility that such an arrangement might be agreed nationally, because having not considered it for very long, I can see that there might be definite advantages in that.
We know that the profession is concerned that PCTs might not be competent to run these contractual arrangements; indeed, the National Audit Office was concerned about the ability of PCTs to run dental contracts. We will have to see whether the NAO was correct in its concerns, which we share, because the fateful hour is rapidly approaching. We shall see on 1 April whether all our worries and those of the NAO were well placed. At a particularly difficult time, therefore, PCTs are being burdened once again by a contract that I suspect they do not fully understand, because they have not previously been intimately involved in the delivery of this particular aspect of health care. Like dentistry, it is a bit new to them. We know, courtesy of the NAO, that financial management accounting and contracts are particularly weak areas with PCTs, so we have to be concerned about their ability to take on such contracts. In view of the Minister's remarks she may wish to consider whether the contractual arrangements should be made nationally so as to remove that burden from PCTs.