Health Bill [HL]

I shall speak briefly. The amendment is probing of an idea, which I hope will get some favour from the Minister and others. Some of it has already been addressed in a different way. As currently worded, the Bill will require both the trust and the primary care trust to produce separate annual quality accounts with indicators about how each is doing locally. The amendment asks why not allow trusts and PCTs to work together to produce additional joint accounts on specific issues, for example maternity services. That would surely encourage NHS bodies to work together more collaboratively. Allowing for reports on specific themes could act as a tool for bringing both sides together to work on problem areas. It would also be potentially more useful to members of the public, many of whom are unlikely to understand why they are split. In addition, the Secretary of State can require such documents to be used as a tool to secure service improvements in problem areas, particularly by making the commissioner and provider work together. If maternity service quality accounts were found to be problematical and deficient in some areas, the problem may lie in the commissioning process of the quality of services. Expecting PCTs in such circumstances to produce quality accounts of all maternity units, together with any others, might go a long way to identifying external bodies, including the CQC, and finding out whether the commissioning is a problem. I beg to move.