§ Baroness Noakesasked Her Majesty's Government:
How they ensure that the charges made by National Health Service trusts for services offered to private patients cover the full costs of those services; and [HL5066]
265WAHow they define cross-subsidy for the purpose of ensuring that charges for services offered to private patients are not cross-subsidised by National Health Service resources. [HL5068]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)Paragraph 14 of Schedule 2 to the NHS and Community Care Act 1990 sets out the responsibility for National Health Service trusts to determine their own charges as follows
According to its functions, an NHS trust may make accommodation or services or both available for patients who give undertakings (or for whom undertakings are given) to pay, in respect of the accommodation or services (or both) such charges as the trust may determine.
§ Baroness Noakesasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether National Health Service trusts are required to keep any records showing the financial result of the services offered to private patients; and, if so, what form those records take. [HL5067]
§ Lord WarnerNational Health Service trusts are required to include their income from private patients in their audited accounts and the amount of bad debt written off for private patients. The Department of Health has not, for some years, required NHS trusts to submit trading accounts for their private patient services.