Regulation Of Private Healthcare

EDM number 875 in 1998-99, proposed by Dominic Grieve on 23/07/1999.

That this House expresses concern at the ineffective regulation of private healthcare and welcomes publication of the Health Committee's Fifth Report of Session 1998-99 (HC 281) into regulation of private and independent healthcare and the recommendations it makes for change; is particularly concerned that patients are not receiving the best care available because the clinical freedom of doctors to decide where patients are not receiving the best care available because the clinical freedom of doctors to decide where patients should be treated is being threatened by the introduction of US-style managed healthcare networks such as that run by the UK's second largest private health insurer PPP and highlighted on a recent BBC Newsnight investigation into anti-competitive practices in the sector; believes that one purpose of the PPP hospital network can be to channel patients to those hospitals in which it has a financial interest despite the advice of doctors and the best interests of patients; and expects, in the interests of patients and consumers, that the Government's current consultation and the Office of Fair Trading's investigation into private healthcare will make clear the primacy of clinical freedom of doctors, not insurers, to make treatment decisions and also introduce an effective, fair and transparent system for determining how hospitals are selected for insurers' hospital networks.

This motion has been signed by a total of 7 MPs, 1 of these signatures have been withdrawn.