Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, whether the payments to each of the private hospital companies under the arrangements announced on 21 March 2020 were made after the costs had first been verified by external auditors on an open book accountancy basis.

National Health Service patients are benefitting from an unprecedented partnership with private hospitals as we battle the COVID-19 outbreak. The Department and NHS England and NHS Improvement have worked with the independent sector to secure all appropriate inpatient capacity and other resource across England.

Information on the number of NHS patients treated by each private hospital under the arrangements announced on 21 March 2020 for the provision of healthcare services and facilities to support the COVID-19 response is not available. However, latest collected information shows that over 215,000 patient contacts nationally had taken place under the contract

Recoverable costs payable to each independent sector hospital provider are paid on account, with reconciliation adjustments made on a monthly basis to reflect actual recoverable costs incurred by the provider as verified by KPMG on NHS England’s behalf on an open book basis and in accordance with International Financial Reporting Standards accounting principles.