Health Bill

I recognise and accept that Amendment No. 52 is an attempt to address two very important points. First, where NHS bodies commission healthcare from the independent sector, it should still meet the same standard of infection prevention and control. However, we have already made provision for that. The Secretary of State can, and will, apply the code of practice to healthcare provided for NHS bodies. When an NHS body covered by the code commissions healthcare, it will have a responsibility to ensure that that healthcare is provided in line with the requirements set out in the code. Secondly, patients of all healthcare providers deserve good-quality infection prevention and control. It is for this reason that we intend to set out requirements for infection prevention and control in the independent sector in regulations under the Care Standards Act 2000. We are doing that separately to reflect the different legislative framework under which the independent health sector operates. These regulations will be based on the requirements set out in the code to ensure that the NHS and independent sectors have an equivalent level of good practice in infection prevention and control. We plan to consult on that later in the year and to issue the new regulations in time to allow the Healthcare Commission to begin inspecting against them in April 2007. The noble Baroness asked about the time taken over that consultation. I understand that we will consult later this year in time to make the changes that I have referred to. April 2007 is the same date as we expect the commission to start assessing the NHS against the code of practice. We are taking account of revisions to standards governing healthcare more generally. We will consult on the measures to extend those controls to the private sector as soon as we are able to do so in the light of these revisions. We do not believe that in the circumstances it is necessary to have the amendment because the two areas about which the noble Baroness is concerned will be covered by the arrangements provided for in the Bill.