ePolitix.com Stakeholders comment on the health proposals included in the Queen's speech.

Stakeholder response: Which?

To send a comment to Which? click here 

A spokesman said: "Which? welcomes the forthcoming introduction of the Health and Social Care Bill into Parliament.

"We believe this is an important opportunity to reform the system of regulating healthcare providers and professionals, to create a truly patient-centred approach to regulation.

"Ensuring that all healthcare, wherever and by whoever it is provided, is safe, effective and of high quality, will go some way to improving protection for consumers, cosmetic change such as laser hair removal or about to go into hospital for an operation.

"The Bill will bring together the existing health and social care regulators into one body, the Care Quality Commission.

It will also implement the white paper proposals to reform the regulation of healthcare professionals, enhancing public and professional confidence in healthcare professionals and strengthen clinical governance."

• All healthcare regulators must be directly accountable to Parliament and present annual performance reports.
  
  
• All healthcare regulators must make information such as performance inspection reports on providers or specific information on healthcare professionals such as their specialisms, higher level qualifications and revalidation status, easily accessible to patients and the public.

Care Quality Commission

• Consumers of some privately provided services, such as dentistry, have had less protection than they would if that service was provided by the NHS. Differences in the regulation of independent services compared to NHS services leads to loopholes and inconsistencies, as services are regulated in different ways and to different standards. As more and more NHS services are provided by the private sector it is important to establish common standards.
  
  
• The regulatory scope of the Commission should be extended to cover all public and independent health and social care services used by consumers, particularly the new types of services emerging in the reformed NHS, such as walk-in centres, polyclinics and GPs with special interests.

Regulation to keep up to date

• The regulatory framework needs to keep up with developments in healthcare. For example, in the rapidly growing cosmetic treatments market new treatments are constantly emerging which are subject to little or no regulation, leaving consumers at risk.
  
  
• Some treatments, such as cosmetic fillers and cosmetic laser treatments, have been particularly subject to weak, ineffectual or a reduction in regulation. These health services can have significantly harmful consequences, and consumers need greater protection, not less.
  
  
• The Bill should therefore create a legal duty on the Commission to identify and take action when consumers are put at risk because the service is not covered by current regulation or self-regulation has failed.

A rapid and proportionate response

• The Commission should include a rapid response unit to tackle serious or persistent failures, to turn around failing wards or hospitals, to help prevent situations such as the high profile case of deaths at Maidstone Hospital from happening again.
  
  
• Rather than simply closing hospitals, the Commission should adopt a more sophisticated approach and actively intervene to help turn around any serious failures within a hospital, be they a particular ward or service, to ensure that the hospital rapidly returns to performing at the correct level.

Regulation of healthcare professionals

• There should be a lay majority of one on the governing bodies of all regulators' councils, and a stronger definition of 'lay' as someone who has no professional interest. This should help ensure that lay members reflect the interests of patients and the public, and ensure the patient interest is embedded in the work of each professional regulatory body.
  
  
• All council members, including professional members, should be independently appointed to strengthen public confidence in the regulatory bodies ability to maintain the public interest to hold professionals properly to account.

Regular assessment of all professionals

• The introduction of regular assessment (revalidation) of healthcare professionals to ensure they are fit to practise will make sure that all professionals maintain appropriate standards of conduct and behaviour to keep their skills up-to-date throughout their professional career.
  
  
• The registration and regulation of all health and social care professionals, including students, healthcare assistants and support workers, to ensure that from the very beginning anyone involved in the care of patients, even during training and at the most junior level are subject to common standards of regulatory accountability.

Improved protection for consumers

• The introduction of a civil standard of proof in any fitness to practise cases, already adopted by some professional regulators,should apply to all regulators to ensure consistent and greater protection for consumers.

Stakeholder Response: Carers UK

To send a comment to Carers UK click here 

Health and Social Care Bill

A spokesperson for Carers UK said: "Carers UK welcome the plans for a single health and social care regulator which will provide greater consistently and should encourage more joint working between the two services.

"However we must make sure that the Care Quality Commission retains the valuable expertise that the Commission for Social Care Inspection (CSCI) has built up on carers’ issues and on social care more broadly.

"CSCI has played an important role in providing information to the public, as well as championing social care as a sector.

"In terms of its remit and function, the new body must help drive the personalisation of services. Patients, services users and carers need better information and support, for example advocacy services and support for those using direct payments.

"The creation of the CQC must go hand in hand with a greater focus on helping families to combine work and care. Currently, the 4 million working age carers are being failed by the system.

"Evidence from Carers UK’s recent ‘Employment, Carers and Services’ research, carried out by the University of Leeds, shows that over 40 per cent of those caring full time and not in work say that they cannot return to employment because of the lack of services available."

Pensions Bill

A spokesperson for Carers UK said: "Carers UK welcomes the introduction of Personal Accounts.

"Many carers work part-time and in low paid jobs and are therefore likely to benefit from the introduction of a low cost scheme and compulsory employer contributions.

"We need to make sure that Personal Accounts are sufficiently flexible for those moving in and out of work, and must also look at the periods when carers are outside of the labour market.

"The Bill must also make sure that those carers who only manage to build up a small amount of savings do not lose out.

"We must also see this policy in the wider context of welfare reform. Further measures are needed to ensure that carers have adequate support to undertake paid work so that they are in a position to save for a pension in the first place."

Equality Bill

A spokesperson for Carers UK said: "Carers UK notes that the government’s manifesto commitment to introduce a Single Equality Bill in this Parliament will not be taken forward during this session.

"This is welcomed, since it will give the government adequate time to engage stakeholders and draft a Bill which can deliver the vision of a more equal society.

"Carers UK was disappointed with the government’s White Paper ‘A framework for fairness’ as it did not recommend measures to protect carers from discrimination.

"We believe this would be a serious oversight at a time when more people will become carers because of the impact of demographic change.

"Carers UK is calling for a duty on public bodies to promote equality between those with caring responsibilities and those without, as already exists in Northern Ireland, along with protection against discrimination in employment and the provision of goods and services to be extended to carers.

"This would help end the current situation where those providing this vital role in society – worth £87bn in economic terms – suffer poverty, ill health and reduced life chances as a result of their caring responsibility."