§ 51 Page 10, line 10, leave out "his" and insert "the"
§ 52 Page 10, line 10, after "opinion" insert "of the Board"
§ 53 Page 10, line 17, after "not" insert", save on the advice of the Board"
§ The Commons disagreed to these Amendments for the following Reason:
§ 54 Because it is inappropriate for the Board to be concerned with the exercise by the Secretary of State of his discretionary powers under the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I beg to move that this House doth not insist on their Amendments Nos. 51 to 53, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 54, which reads:
Because it is inappropriate for the Board to be concerned with the exercise by the Secretary of State of his discretionary powers under the Health Services and Public Health Act 1968.
§ Moved, That this House doth not insist on the said Amendments, to which the Commons have disagreed for the Reason numbered 54.—(Lord Well-Pestell.)
§ Baroness YOUNGMy Lords, this is the kind of reason which I should have thought aroused all the suspicions of everyone concerned with this Bill. It is precisely because the Government clearly consider it inappropriate for the Board to be concerned with the exercise by the Secretary of State of his discretionary powers that we wonder how much of the trust on which the Goodman Proposals are based will, in fact, be fulfilled, because there can be no alternative facilities at all and no alternative use by doctors of NHS facilities, if the charges are so high as to be uneconomic. Again, we shall not insist on our Amendments, but I am bound to say to the Government that if they are seriously interested in getting this scheme to work this, again, is a matter which the Secretary of State will have to interpret reading carefully the Goodman Agreements, and making quite sure that any charges fixed will not make it impossible for private patients to use the facilities.
§ Lord WELLS-PESTELLMy Lords, I cannot let the comments of the noble Baroness pass without making some myself, because we must get this into the right perspective. Quite apart from the fact that another place did not seem very excited about this, it is necessary to remember that the Secretary of State has at present, and has had since 1968, discretionary powers under Section 31 of the 1968 Act. The Amendment, by taking away the Secretary of State's discretion and transferring it to the Board, would involve the Board in deciding how the day-to-day provision of services in National Health Service hospitals should be organised. That was never intended to be a function of the Board which is not equipped to do that; nor, in my view, will it ever be equipped to do that. The Board will nave no locus whatsoever for deciding in what circumstances patients should be admitted under Clause 8, and to take away this power, which is a crucial power of the Secretary of State, whoever he may be, would not be right 1718 and proper when it involves somebody in making day to day decisions.