§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will list the organisations invited to run private diagnostic and treatment centres; in how many cases such an organisation, its associated companies, subsidiaries or directors(a) have been indicted for defrauding taxpayers, patients, staff or their national revenue service and (b) are being investigated for such offences; and if he will list the offences in each case. [130355]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 16 September 2003]: A list of bidders selected to run new treatment centres was announced on Friday 12 September.
In line with major public procurements, Official Journal of the European Communities procurement rules have been adhered to. Regulation 14 of the Public Services Contracts Regulations 1993 specifies the criteria for rejecting bidders. All bidders were required to complete a pre-qualification questionnaire confirming that no bidder had among other matters been convicted of a criminal offence or committed a grave misconduct in the course of its business of not fulfilling obligations relating to payment of taxes. Each appointed preferred bidder has confirmed that that there are no grounds applicable pursuant to which they could be rejected under Regulation 14.
Further, each preferred bidder has confirmed that there are no material nor employment related litigation or other legal proceedings relating to any of the projects that have undertaken which they relied on in their bid to demonstrate their experience of health care projects.
§ Mr. HammondTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what research informed the grouping of diagnostic and treatment centres into the chain which includes the proposed Ashford centre. [131503]
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§ Mr. HuttonIn autumn 2002, the national health service undertook a national capacity planning process lead by local NHS commissioners. This identified a range of capacity gaps that needed to be met for the NHS to meet the waiting time target set for 2005. Where the NHS was not able to demonstrate plans to meet this demand the residual activity was market tested in December 2002 through an Official Journal of the European Communities (OJEC) advert. In light of the preliminary response, the chains were configured to link capacity gaps of similar activity and organised in a way that the market could provide a rapid response.
§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether privately run diagnostics and treatment centres will operate(a) in whole and (b) in part from NHS premises. [131906]
§ Mr. HuttonA principal aim of the independent sector treatment centre programme is to make available to national health service commissioners additional capacity. Many of the units will either be new build or modular accommodation. In some cases, where local NHS commissioners have requested and where it tits within the local health economy, these units may use NHS accommodation for which they will pay the NHS rent.
§ Mr. DobsonTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether NHS premises will be used by private sector diagnostic and treatment centres. [131051]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 18 September 2003]: A principle aim of the independent sector treatment centre programme is to make available to national health service commissioners additional capacity. Many of the units will either be new buildings or modular accommodation (pre-built operating theatres or ward space). In some cases, local NHS commissioners will make available NHS accommodation that is not currently in use for these new units. In these cases the independent sector provider will pay rent to the NHS.