Health and Social Care Bill

Page 2, line 9, at end insert—

“( ) The Secretary of State retains ministerial responsibility to Parliament for the provision of the health service in England.”

Page 2, line 40, at end insert—

“, and

(a) the Secretary of State should by regulations set out a clear system of recourse for patients, or other concerned individuals, who do not believe that an equitable service is being commissioned either for their condition and/or in their locality.”

Page 3, leave out lines 4 to 6 and insert—

“Subject to section 1(1) to (3), and so far as is consistent with the interests of the health service, the Secretary of State must, in exercising functions in relation to that service, have regard to the desirability of securing—”

Page 3, line 28, at end insert—

“(1A) Any person who provides services for the purposes of that health service must co-operate with the Secretary of State (or a Special Health Authority) in the discharge of the duty under subsection (1).”

Insert the following new Clause—

“The Secretary of State’s duty to ensure openness and transparency with patients when things go wrong

(1) After section 1D of the National Health Service Act 2006 insert—

“1E Duty of Candour when things go wrong

(1) The Secretary of State must act with a view to securing that any organisation registered with the Care Quality Commission to provide healthcare is required to take all reasonable steps to ensure that a patient or, in the event of death or incapacity, their next of kin, are fully informed about incidents which occur as a consequence of providing the regulated healthcare to that patient where the incident has resulted in—

(a) any injury to a patient which, in the reasonable opinion of a health care professional, has resulted in—

(i) an impairment of the sensory, motor or intellectual functions of the patient which is not likely to be temporary,

(ii) changes to the structure of a patient’s body,

(iii) the patient experiencing prolonged pain or prolonged psychological harm, or

(iv) the significant shortening of the life expectancy of the patient; or

(b) any injury to a patient which, in the reasonable opinion of a health care professional, requires treatment by that, or another, health care professional in order to prevent—

(i) the death of the patient, or

(ii) an injury to the patient which, if left untreated, would lead to one or more of the outcomes mentioned in paragraph (a)”.”

Page 6, line 38, at end insert—

“( ) A clinical commissioning group must exercise its functions under this section in a manner consistent with the performance by the Secretary of State of the duty under section 1(1) (promotion of comprehensive health service).”

Page 18, line 18, leave out “act with a view to” and insert “have regard to the desirability of”

Page 37, line 4, at end insert—

“( ) ensure the provision of services for patients with less common conditions.”

Page 37, line 36, at end insert—

“14XA Duty in respect of training

Each clinical commissioning group must, in the exercise of its functions, have regard to the need to promote adequate training of clinical staff in any provider from which it commissions services for NHS patients, whether that provider be NHS or private.”

Page 56, line 17, at end insert—

“( ) The individual so appointed must be a registered public health specialist who has a broad range of professional expertise in public health.”

Page 56, line 18, at end insert—

“( ) The director of public health shall be a person for whom the head of the paid service is directly responsible and shall be required to report directly to the authority as to the exercise of the post.”

Page 56, line 40, leave out “consult” and insert “have the consent of”

Page 57, line 7, at end insert—

“( ) A local authority shall have the function of ensuring an effective response is made to an outbreak of disease or other public health emergency in its area and in so doing, shall have regard to any document published by the Secretary of State.”

Insert the following new Clause—

“Public health specialists

(1) In section 25 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002, in subsection 3 (regulatory bodies regulated by the Council for the regulation of health care professionals), insert—

“(k) those statutory bodies responsible for the regulation of public health specialists including those from backgrounds other than medicine, for whom a statutory register will be established by the Health Professions Council.”

(2) In this Act “registered public health specialist” means a person recognised as such on a register maintained by those statutory bodies responsible for the regulation of public health specialists, including those from backgrounds other than medicine.”

Page 281, line 34, at end insert—

“( ) Clinical commissioning groups must maintain a publicly accessible register of all potential conflicts of interest of those individuals involved in any part of the commissioning process.

( ) The Secretary of State must issue guidance on how conflicts of interest should be dealt with by commissioning consortia as part of their decision making.

( ) Clinical commissioning groups must have regard to that guidance.”