Final Report > Chapter 27: Care of an Appropriate Standard > Generic standards for healthcare organisations > Validation in the private sector

Validation in the private sector

41 These generic standards must apply wherever patients receive healthcare services paid for by the NHS. This would include all trusts within the NHS and those organisations in the voluntary or the private sector which treat patients paid for by the NHS. It is plainly not acceptable for a patient to receive care paid for by the NHS in a private hospital if the standards of care are below those which apply to NHS hospitals. Thus there must be a system whereby, if private hospitals are to provide care to NHS patients, they must first achieve validation against the obligatory standards established within the NHS. Currently, the Government's intention is that private hospitals which provide acute care will be inspected, not by CHI, but by a new body, the National Care Standards Commission. [22] There must be a serious question as to whether it is in patients' interests for there to be two separate systems of inspection, applying different standards, one set for the private sector and another for the public sector. Patients are entitled to expect that, wherever they are treated as an NHS patient, the standards stipulated by the NHS will apply. Thus we would urge that, with regard to patients treated in the private sector and funded by the NHS, the approach adopted by the National Care Standards Commission replicates that which applies to patients treated within the NHS.

Footnotes

[22] The National Care Standards Commission, established under the Care Standards Act 2000 and due to be fully operational in 2002, is a non-departmental public body with a remit to regulate residential care homes and private and voluntary healthcare in England. It will set national minimum standards, inspect, investigate complaints against registered services, and report to the Secretary of State on the range and quality of regulated services