NHS — Private Patient Income Cap — 16 Jan 2012 at 21:50

The majority of MPs voted against reducing the amount of income a NHS foundation trust is permitted to make from private patients.

The text of the rejected motion reads:

• That this House
• believes there is an important role for the private sector in supporting the delivery of NHS care;
• welcomes the contribution made by private providers to the delivery of the historic 18-week maximum wait for NHS patients;
• recognises a need, however, for agreed limits on private sector involvement in the NHS;
• notes with concern the Government’s plans to open up the NHS as a regulated market, increasing private sector involvement in both commissioning and provision of NHS services;
• urges the Government to revisit its plans, learning from the recent problems with PIP implants and the private cosmetic surgery industry;
• believes its plan for a 49 per cent. private income cap for Foundation Trusts, in the context of the hospitals as autonomous business units and a ‘no bail-outs’ culture, signals a fundamental departure from established practice in NHS hospitals;
• fears that the Government’s plans will lead to longer waiting times, will increase health inequalities and risk putting profits before patients;
• is concerned that this House has not been given an opportunity to consider such a significant policy change; and
• calls on the Government to revise significantly downwards its proposed cap on the level of private income that can be generated by NHS hospitals.

Explanatory notes to the Health And Social Care Bill^[1] provide further information on the proposed cap on the level of private income that can be generated by NHS hospitals (the cap is introduced in Clause 168 of the Health and Social Care Bill^[2]) :

• This clause repeals the restriction on the amount of income a foundation trust can earn from private charges, otherwise known as the "private patient income cap". The cap, which was introduced in 2003, has the effect that a foundation trust cannot earn in any financial year a higher proportion of its total income from private charges than it derived from private charges in the financial year 2002-03 (the year before the first foundation trusts were authorised). For example, as no mental health foundation trust derived income from private charges in 2002-03, their cap was 0%. This was increased to 1.5% by section 33 of the Health Act 2009.

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• [1] Explanatory Notes to the Health And Social Care Bill as brought from the House of Commons on 8th September 2011
• [2] Clause 168 (Private Health Care) from Health and Social Care Bill as at 18 July 2013

Debate in Parliament | Source |