Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health and Social Care, if she will take steps to allow patients to recover the cost of privately funded treatment from the NHS where they were not offered the option of treatment at an independent hospital under the NHS Choice Framework.

There are no current plans to enable patients to recoup costs from the National Health Service via the Patient Choice Framework for individuals’ use of the independent sector. The NHS Constitution allows patients to be treated by an independent sector provider where available as part of their right to choose. We want to make sure this is offered consistently across the country, which is why we will be working with the independent sector, the NHS and primary care to ensure that referral systems include all appropriate independent sector providers, opening up a full suite of available options for patients.