Clause 26
Health and Social Care Bill
10:00 am
Stephen O'Brien (Shadow Minister, Health; Eddisbury, Conservative)
I am grateful to my hon. Friend—I had not thought about that. It is an important point, because the purpose of the 28-day appeal period is to give people an opportunity for fairness and justice; yet such a situation would not arise unless matters were judged to be so serious that most people would say that it was time to get out. It is a matter not only of fairness and justice for the providers or owners of the care setting, but of the rights of, and fairness and justice for, the patients. They are often so frail and vulnerable that the prospect of a move from surroundings that have become familiar—this may be particularly important for people with dementia, who hold on to the physical aspects of their surroundings more than other things—can be sufficiently dislocating to cause their condition to decline. We would all want such effects to be avoided. My hon. Friend’s point is extremely interesting and important, and I expect that the Minister will respond to it.