Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what assessment he has made of the implications of his Department’s policy of outsourcing healthcare for patients in need of intense 24 hour care.

This Government is fully committed to the National Health Service as a public service free at the point of need, whether care is provided by NHS organisations or by the private, voluntary or social enterprise sectors.

No assessment has been made by the Department of the implications of outsourcing healthcare for patients, which in this instance we have taken to mean intense 24-hour NHS-Continuing Healthcare care. It is the responsibility of commissioners of NHS healthcare services to ensure that the NHS provides the highest quality of services possible, on a financially and operationally sustainable footing. For that reason, the Department neither bans nor promotes the use of the private, voluntary or social enterprise sectors – the key is whether outcomes for patients improve.