Clause 22
Health and Social Care Bill
4:30 pm
Simon Burns (Minister of State (Health), Health; Chelmsford, Conservative)
Thank you, Mr Hood. I say only that I would regard that as institutionalised cherry-picking.
The amendments seek to address how conflicts of interest are managed within consortia and that appropriate safeguards are in place to ensure that decisions are taken in the interests of patients, rather than of member practices. I think we can all agree—notwithstanding the past five minutes of debate—that it should be patients who reap the benefits from consortia commissioning activities in terms of improved health outcomes.
Let me reassure Opposition Members that conflicts of interest arising within the new commissioning arrangements are a matter to which the Government have given considerable thought. We are of course not in favour of such things—not in favour, I hasten to repeat, before anyone misunderstands or mishears—and I will demonstrate that we have put necessary safeguards in place to ensure that the potential for such conflicts is transparently and properly managed.
Respondents to the “Equity and Excellence” White Paper consultation supported our proposals to put systems in place to ensure fairness and transparency in decision making, particularly in relation to any decisions to commission services from GP practices. We have therefore laid down in the Bill measures that ensure, in an environment of flexibility and freedom, that the actions and decisions of consortia and their member practices are transparent and appropriate.
Clause 63 is important in that regard. It allows for regulations to impose requirements on both the board and consortia so that when commissioning services they adhere to good practice in procurement. Regulations may impose requirements relating to
“the management of conflicts between the interests involved in the commissioning of services and the interests involved in providing them.”
Amendment 211 would require the board to include in its commissioning guidance for consortia guidance on arrangements to manage conflicts of interest. The regulation power in clause 63 to impose requirements about conflict is stronger than that. In addition, paragraph 4 of new schedule 1A to the National Health Service Act 2006, inserted by schedule 2 to the Bill, requires each consortium to set out its arrangements for managing potential conflicts of interest. Consortia will have the flexibility to specify their own arrangements, but it will be the role of the board to review and approve those arrangements as appropriate.
As part of the establishment process for consortia, the NHS commissioning board must be satisfied that the applicants have made appropriate arrangements to ensure that the consortium will be able to discharge its functions. The board will review consortia constitutions for evidence that clear arrangements are in place to discharge their functions, including promoting choice and managing potential conflicts of interest. If the board is not satisfied that the proposed arrangements are adequate, it will simply not establish the consortium.
Doctors are also bound by a duty under General Medical Council guidance that any commercial interest GPs might have in a company must not affect how they refer or prescribe for a patient. If they do decide that it is most clinically appropriate to refer a patient to a company in which they have an interest, they must inform the patient of that interest. Such commercial interests might take the form of shareholding in or ownership of companies providing community-based services, such as dermatology or podiatry.