§ Mr. George OsborneTo ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will require private sector hospitals to publish performance indicators on standards of patient care. [30856]
§ Mr. HuttonI apologise to the hon. Member for the delay in responding to this question. I refer him to the reply that my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State gave my hon. Friend the Member for Blackpool, North and Fleetwood (Mrs. Humble) on 5 March 2002,Official Report, at column 192W.
National Care Standards Commission inspection teams will collect data on the performance indicators for the sector as laid out in regulation 28 of the Private and Voluntary Health Care Regulations. This data will be analysed and form part of the report from the Commission to the Secretary of State.
The Commission is also examining other key clinical indicators that may be perceived to be a reflection on the quality of care received by a patient, and inspection teams will collect data on these issues in the first year of inspection experience. They will test the approaches to data collection to ensure that it is robust before publishing the results.