§ Baroness Noakesasked Her Majesty's Government:
Whether, as reported in the Health Service Journal on 4 July 2002, they hope that foreign teams contracted to carry out operations on National Health Service patients in England will be in place by the end of July; and, if so, what procurement procedures will have been followed. [HL5186]
§ Lord Hunt of Kings HeathOverseas clinical teams are already operating on National Health Service patients in England as part of a first mover wave of projects. For these projects providers were identified who could in principle bring in clinicians to a tight timetable, at an appropriate price. Central funding is only being released where providers can demonstrate high clinical quality and good value for money benchmarked against alternative sources of capacity in the local independent sector.