Health Bill [HL]

I know that I shall be unpopular with the Government for giving warm support to the amendment. When I became a consultant neurologist in 1958, I chose at the outset to be part-time in nine sessions, and I spent two half-days a week in private practice. That was an interesting experience and one which I greatly enjoyed, though I was absolutely meticulous in making certain that my nine NHS sessions were more than fulfilled, often amounting to over 60 hours a week. At that time, I had a neurological ward with 28 beds, and of those 28 beds in the Newcastle General Hospital there were eight single rooms and two bays, one of 10 beds for women and one of 10 beds for men. Of the eight single rooms, two could be used at any time, if the situation so arose, for the care of private patients. I have no doubt whatever in my mind that, as time went by, the situation became very difficult because, under pressure from the trade unions at the time when Mrs Castle, subsequently Lady Castle, was Secretary of State for Health, slowly but surely private beds were withdrawn from NHS hospitals. We ended up with the ridiculous situation that there were in Newcastle three private beds, one in each of the main general hospitals. I had by then become a full-time academic, and I was no longer undertaking private practice, after several years as a consultant in part-time practice. I had built up a major research unit for research into neuromuscular disease, for which I developed such a reputation that we had patients referred from other parts of the world to come to that unit for investigation. Very properly, it was the law that any patient coming directly to the UK for treatment from overseas had to be a private patient. That was absolutely right, because it was not the case for people who were visitors from overseas who happened to fall ill. Those who came specifically who were referred from overseas had to be private patients. That decision by Mrs Castle gave the greatest impetus to the development of private hospitals outside the NHS of any decision of any Government. Before that time, many consultants in part-time private practice were geographically whole-time: they looked after their NHS patients and their private patients in the same hospital—they were private wards, all of which were closed. I was thereafter compelled to refuse patients referred to me from the United States, Australia and other countries. I could not take them into hospital because no specialist facilities such as were required for the investigation of neuromuscular disease existed in any private hospital. I found that situation intolerable. I have always believed that a partnership between the public and the private sectors is a benefit to the National Health Service provided that part-time consultants give their services, as they must for the time for which they are contracted, to the NHS. Individuals with private health insurance have paid their taxes and have in the same way as everyone else contributed to the costs of the NHS. The proposal would benefit the National Health Service by allowing more money to be developed on the private practice side which would go into the hospitals. I support the amendment, as I did under a previous Government. I am a Cross-Bencher; I am not a member of any political party; but I strongly favour this form of tax relief on private medical insurance.