Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, what steps his Department is taking to improve the monitoring of consultants in the independent sector who operate under practising privileges.

Following a critical report by the Care Quality Commission about the quality and safety of care in the independent sector, the Secretary of State has written to Chief Executives of the leading Independent Sector Providers, setting out a number of areas that require significant improvements.

The General Medical Council (GMC) is the independent regulator of all medical doctors in the United Kingdom. All doctors must register with the GMC to practise in the UK.

All UK registered doctors are expected to meet the professional standards set out in the (GMC’s) Good Medical Practice. To maintain their licence to practise, a doctor must demonstrate, through the revalidation process, that they work in line with the principles and values set out in this guidance.

Serious or persistent failure to follow this guidance that poses a risk to the public will put their registration at risk.

The independent sector treats National Health Service patients as well as private patients, and it is therefore right that the Secretary of State addresses these issues directly.