§ Mr. LansleyTo ask the Secretary of State for Health what the contract price of treatments provided by independent treatment centres is expressed as a proportion of the relevant NHS tariff for that treatment. [166077]
§ Mr. Hutton[holding answer 20 April 2004]: National health service national tariffs do not directly correspond to the packages of care we are purchasing from the independent sector in the treatment centre programme. For example, varying numbers of out-patient appointments and follow-up care are included in the procedure prices of the independent sector treatment centre provider, which are not included in NHS national tariff for individual procedures.
For the single-procedure cataract chain, a price per cataract procedure was at nearly 10 per cent. less than the comparable NHS cost. Further contracts have been signed in relation to treatment centres at Daventry, Bradford, Trent and South Yorkshire, Plymouth, and the national, so-called spine chain. These contracts are for the provision of joint replacements, other orthopaedics and other elective procedures. For these treatment centres, it is not appropriate to directly compare NHS national tariffs with the bid price of providers.