Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what safeguards his Department puts in place to ensure that NHS patients are not adversely affected by the treatment of private patients in NHS trusts and foundation trusts.

The principal focus for the regulator, NHS Improvement, is to drive and support both urgent operational improvements at the frontline and to ensure the long term sustainability of the healthcare system. Central to this is their role in ensuring that patient safety is embedded at the very heart of all National Health Service organisations. This includes consideration of a range of factors relevant to risks to quality of care, financial sustainability and operational performance.