Draft National Health Service Commissioning Board (Additional Functions) Regulations 2017

Michael Fabricant Excerpts

Wednesday 1st February 2017 General Committees

[The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Health (David Mowat)]

I beg to move,

That the Committee has considered the Draft National Health Service Commissioning Board (Additional Functions) Regulations 2017.

It is, as ever, a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. These regulations deal with the transfer of a business unit, the Commercial Medicines Unit, from the Department of Health into the NHS Commissioning Board, usually referred to as NHS England. The details are set out in the explanatory note, in particular paragraph 7, but I will tell the Committee in broad terms what the Commercial Medicines Unit does and why we feel it is time to transfer it from the Department of Health to NHS England.

There are 35 to 40 staff in the unit, principally at Runcorn and Reading, and their role is to procure, conclude and manage a set of framework agreements that are used within NHS England to purchase medicines in the hospital sector. About £8 billion total throughput is involved, of which £2.6 billion relates to framework agreements. There is an estimated saving in excess of £100 million a year from having the framework agreements, which cover drugs, medicines and services.

The process is that typically NHS organisations—either the specialised commissioning function or hospital pharmacists—identify areas where it would be of benefit to have framework agreements: perhaps there is going to be a drugs increase or an increase in volume of a particular item. This group sets up those agreements; they negotiate them with the suppliers, put them into place, and make them available for use in hospitals throughout the country. When the drugs are used they are paid for by the NHS. There is clearly a bit of a divide in that the NHS initiates and then the frameworks in the Department of Health and then the NHS do the back end in terms of specialised commissioning and paying for them.

The Carter review, which looked at efficiency across the hospital sector, identified this as an area that we should consider putting back from the Department of Health into NHS England. The view is that that is a logical thing to do at this stage. The regulation would regularise the way that business is carried out.

[Michael Fabricant (Lichfield) (Con)]

Concern was expressed at Prime Minister’s Question Time a couple of hours ago that various parts of the NHS might be sold off in any future agreement between the United States and the UK. Will my hon. Friend confirm that the transfer of this unit to NHS England does not make it any more vulnerable? Perhaps he might like to comment on the Prime Minister’s view regarding any such sell-off.

[The Chair]

Order. Despite Mr Fabricant’s attempt to try to widen the debate to the privatisation of the NHS and trade deals with America, I would be grateful if the Minister ignored his advances and stuck to the subject that we are debating.

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[Julie Cooper (Burnley) (Lab)]

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Mr Davies. I am grateful to the Minister for outlining the detail of this statutory instrument. I am happy that this is an operational procedure involving a transfer of functions, and that there are no greater implications. We will not oppose the regulations, but I would like to make a few brief comments.

The regulations provide for the relocation of an operational unit from the Department of Health to the NHS Commissioning Board, and in so doing confer additional powers and duties on the board. No substantial change is envisaged in the way those duties and activities will be carried out, nor will there be any material change in the end result.

Regulation 4 gives the board a new power to manage contract agreements with suppliers and manufacturers of services, drugs, medicines and other products for the purpose of preventing, diagnosing and treating both physical and mental illness. That will result in the sharing of expertise and a co-ordinated approach between the team responsible for the function and teams responsible for specialised commissioning. That potentially will have a beneficial impact on value for money and quality of services and lead to reductions in geographical inequalities, which we welcome.

[Michael Fabricant]

Does the hon. Lady share my view that if the ownership of that department, which is currently based in London, is to change, it would be rather nice if it could be moved to the provinces?

[Julie Cooper]

I am always happy to see departments move out into the provinces, particularly the northern provinces.

We have no objection in principle to the transfer of these functions from the Commercial Medicines Unit. We recognise that the board will still be bound, by virtue of the connected functions outlined within the 2006 Act, to promote a comprehensive health service in England that is designed to secure improvement in the physical and mental health of the people of England and in the prevention, diagnosis and treatment of physical and mental illness.

Obtaining value for money within the NHS is a priority for us. There is now widespread acknowledgment that the NHS is underfunded. All contractual efficiencies are therefore welcome, provided they do not compromise patient access to medication and so on. We are aware that the use of framework agreements to purchase secondary care medical services and products has led to considerable savings for the NHS to date.

Our primary concern is always to ensure the greatest possible access to medication and other therapeutic and diagnostic products for patients. We would not support any attempt to ration treatments and put financial interests before medical need. We welcome the requirement in regulation 6 that places a duty on the board to consult and collaborate with every NHS trust and NHS foundation via a registered pharmacist. This will ensure that there is no loss of effective communication channels and will guarantee continuity of supply of medicines and related services for patients. I am satisfied that all staff will be guaranteed continuity of employment, and terms and conditions will be protected upon transfer. I can confirm that we will not oppose this statutory instrument.