Clause 2 — Notice of Patient's Possible Need for Community Care Services

Part of Community Care (Delayed Discharges Etc.) Bill – in the House of Commons at 4:45 pm on 19 March 2003.

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Photo of Simon Burns Simon Burns Shadow Spokesperson (Health) 4:45, 19 March 2003

I do not wish to detain the House for long, but I wish to speak to Lords amendment No. 16, which was successfully passed in the other place. It deals with clauses 2 and 3, which are to do with the determination of need for community care services on discharge. I am sure that hon. Members would agree that that is the nuts and bolts of this legislation. As you will be aware, Mr. Deputy Speaker, clause 2, under the heading of

"Notice of patient's possible need for community care services", gives the background rules, regulations and legislation. Clause 3, to which Lords amendment No. 16 refers, goes into greater detail on what has to be done during the process. The amendment seeks simply to add to the duties that the responsible authority must carry out. Clause 3(3)(a) says that the responsible authority must

"carry out an assessment of the patient's needs with a view to identifying any community care services that need to be made available".

Clause 3(3)(b) says that the authority must,

"after consulting the responsible NHS body, decide which of those services . . . the authority will make available for the patient."

This amendment specifies that, before making a decision under clause 3(3), the responsible authority should have certain duties to carry out to give more power and involvement to the patient and carer. There are straightforward common-sense things that I would assume that no one would disagree with—although I may be proved wrong. For example, there is the duty to

"consult the patient and his carer, if he has one"; the duty to

"inform them of the cost of the proposed care plans"; and the duty to

"obtain the consent of the patient".

Those duties are an important improvement to the legislation and I hope that the Minister, having had time to reflect since the amendment was passed in the other place, will come round to the logic and advantages of accepting it. If she is not prepared to accept it, I will ask, Mr. Deputy Speaker, whether I may press it to a Division. I hope that it will not come to that. Even at this late stage, I hope that common sense will prevail and that the Minister will think again.