Clause 6
NHS Redress Bill [Lords]
4:15 pm
Andy Burnham (Minister of State (Delivery and Quality), Department of Health; Leigh, Labour)
The hon. Gentleman is merely confirming that neither he nor his Friends in another place have thought the scheme through. The terms of clause 12 suggest that all cases would be investigated by a patient redress investigator who lays out clearly that they shall have conduct of the investigation of fact in accordance with clause 12 (2)(a), which says that a patient redress investigator shall
“conduct the investigation of the facts of a case in accordance with the rules of natural justice; and... produce a report on the principal findings of the investigation.”
I cannot understand how one or two investigators in a region could do that for every case. The hon. Gentleman also said the proposal was not additional, but it clearly is. He just said that these people would be put in place in a particular region to carry out a particular contract.
The major objection is not to the cost. The proposal envisages a very different scheme from the one we have in mind. It would replicate in the NHS redress scheme the style of investigation carried out under the legal process, but the whole point of the scheme is to create a breathing space; a period in which the NHS can face up to its failings and make appropriate redress. The hon. Gentleman’s proposal would create a substantially different scheme that does the same job that would now follow from the legal process.