DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH
News Release (2007/0328) issued by The Government News Network on 16
November 2007
New measures to
enhance patient safety and help support families to stay healthy
A new Bill to enhance patient safety and improve public health
was today published by Health Minister Ben Bradshaw.
The Health and Social Care Bill will:
* Establish the Care Quality Commission, a new health and adult
social care regulator with tough powers to inspect, investigate
and intervene where hospitals are failing to meet safety and
quality requirements, including hygiene standards;
* Reform professional regulation to give patients and the public
confidence in the care they receive from health professionals.
This includes creating a new independent adjudicator to make
independent decisions about whether individual health
professionals should remain in practice so the public can have
full confidence in the transparency and independence of medical
regulation, and appointing Responsible Officers to oversee the
conduct and performance of doctors at a local level. Some of these
proposals have been the result of the recommendations from Lady
Justice Smith's work on the Shipman Inquiry;
* Allow for cash grants to be made to pregnant women in the final
stage of pregnancy, recognising the importance of a healthy diet
and the additional costs expectant mothers face at this time;
* Update existing public health protection legislation to provide
a comprehensive set of public health measures to help prevent and
control the spread of serious diseases caused by infection and contamination.
The Care Quality Commission will bring together the expertise of
the Healthcare Commission, Commission for Social Care Inspection
and the Mental Health Act Commission, meaning a more consistent
approach to regulation at a time when more and more services are
crossing traditional health and social care boundaries. It will
reduce the burden of inspection on the frontline reducing the
level of duplication and bureaucracy faced by hospitals and care
homes as well as creating a level playing field across the public
and private sectors.
Health Minister Ben Bradshaw said:
"This Bill will enhance patient safety and help to ensure
good quality services for patients and service users. It will
establish a new regulator with tough new powers to inspect and
take immediate and firm action where needed to protect patients
and service users.
"It will also put in place significant reform of
professional regulation so that patients can have confidence that
the care they receive will be safe, and that where concerns about
an individual practitioner do exist, they will be tackled swiftly,
fairly and effectively."
Welcoming the publication of the Bill, Martin Green, chief
executive of the English Community Care Association, said:
"We welcome the fact that the new regulator will have
significant powers
in the field of healthcare. It is our hope
that we will see much more of a level playing field between health
and social care and a regulator who is sector-neutral and deals
equitably with both the public and independent sector."
The Health and Social Care Bill also has a key role in helping
families tackle childhood obesity and protecting public health. It
includes new plans to provide all parents whose children take part
in the National Child Measurement Programme with the results and
healthy living advice - helping them make decisions about lifestyle.
Research commissioned by the Department of Health suggests that
most parents would like feedback from the programme, as it may be
useful for monitoring a child's health, or as an aid to teach
families about healthy weight.
The Government will be consulting with parents and working with
professional groups and organisations to develop the best system
and format for providing feedback to parents.
Ben Bradshaw added:
"Giving parents clear information about their child's
weight is important way of engaging with families, and prompting a
coversation about healthy lifestyles and weight issues within the
home. This change to legislation is not about telling parents what
do, or lecturing them on how to raise their children, it is a way
of supporting families to be healthy.
"Tackling obesity is a top priority for the Government, and
this change is part of our commitment to make the NHS a service
that prevents ill health, as well as treating it - a wellbeing
service, rather than a sickness service."
NOTES TO EDITORS
1. The Health and Social Care Bill was introduced to Parliament
on 15 November 2007 and published today.
2. The National Child Measurement Programme (NCMP) is an
important element of the Government's work to address the
serious and growing problem of childhood obesity.
a. It aims
to collect height and weight data on all children in Reception
(aged 4-5 years) and Year 6 (aged 10-11 years) in all primary
schools in England.
b. This data will inform local planning
and delivery of services for children and gather population-level
surveillance data to allow analysis of trends in growth patterns
and obesity.
c. The National Child Measurement Programme data
is protected, and stored safely. Individual children's
results will not be shared with school staff or other pupils.
3. The online child height and weight calculator is already
available at http://www.directgov.co.uk/childweight.
4. Primary Care Trusts (PCTs) will share a child's height
and weight information with their parents. The data will be
accompanied by information to help parents decide whether their
child is a healthy weight or not, tips on healthy living and
signposting to follow-up services as necessary. Parents will
also be able to feed their child's measurements into a new
parent-friendly online healthy weight calculator.
5. It is expected that the changes will come into operation from
September 2008, subject to the Parliamentary timetable.