Question to the Department of Health and Social Care:

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, pursuant to the Answer of 27 February 2017 to Question 65076, on private patients, for what reason the information given on co-payments at the web address identified and dated April 2013 is marked interim, and when he expects a final version of that website to be available.

When it was established in 2013, NHS England published a set of so-called ‘generic commissioning policies’ including the policy on “Defining the boundaries between the NHS and private healthcare”. These policies were intended to guide NHS England’s decision-making for its directly commissioned services. The policies were published on an interim basis as it was recognised that they would benefit from further engagement and testing with stakeholders, including patients and the public.

In October 2016 NHS England launched a public consultation on the set of policies, to test whether they were sufficiently clear and effective in supporting decision-making. The consultation followed a period of review and testing with stakeholders. As well as testing the detail of some of the policies, the consultation was intended to test whether the policies would continue to be appropriate in light of other Department of Health or NHS England policy developments, or whether they risked duplication.

NHS England’s response to the consultation is planned for publication shortly. The response will set out the planned changes to the set policies based on feedback received during the consultation.