§ Mr. WoodTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many NHS patients have been redirected to private hospitals under his recently announced scheme; and what the position of such patients is in cases where treatment received proves defective(a) at the time of treatment and (b) subsequently. [150424]
§ Ms StuartThere are no centrally held figures for the numbers of patients treated under the terms of the concordat. Health authorities have allocated funds to local commissioning bodies to make local arrangements as the concordat does not set out detailed contractual arrangements; these are left to be secured locally according to local need.
Any patient treated making use of the private or voluntary sector under the terms of the concordat remains a National Health Service patient and their treatment remains NHS treatment. Such patients remain the responsibility of the NHS and continue to have full access to the NHS complaints procedure should they have any need to complain about treatment received.