Health Care Policy Division

FUTURE ARRANGEMENTS FOR THE REGULATION OF PRIVATE AND VOLUNTARY HEALTHCARE (A CONSULTATION)

The below letter was issued in March 2000 to the attached list of consultees. We also welcome comments from any other interested parties.

Dear Sir/Madam

The private and voluntary healthcare sector in Scotland is currently regulated under the Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938. For a number of reasons these arrangements are no longer appropriate. I am therefore writing to seek your views on future arrangements for regulating private and voluntary healthcare establishments in Scotland.

The Scottish Executive’s approach is to have open and wide-ranging consultation. This is an opportunity for the public to offer views on policy development. We would particularly value the views of those using the services provided by the private healthcare service.

A range of options for a future regulatory system is discussed in the attached consultation paper. Our approach has been to set out the pros and cons of each and to seek views as to the best way forward. We hope that consultees will let us have their views on these. However, we recognise that there may be other approaches to this issue and consultees should therefore feel free to put forward any other proposals they might have.

The Scottish Executive has adopted the proposals set out in Aiming for Excellence: Modernising Social Work Services in Scotland. This White Paper put forward proposals to establish new arrangements for the regulation of residential care and nursing homes. The subsequent consultation paper Regulating Care and the Social Services Workforce signalled the intention to consider how the independent private and voluntary healthcare sector might best be regulated in the context of these changes. Currently private hospitals are regulated and inspected under the Nursing Homes Registration (Scotland) Act 1938.

The consultation paper considers a number of possible options for a new regulatory system. Two of these meet the requirement for an independent regulatory regime. One is to give this responsibility to the Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care, the other to set up an independent body. As our paper makes clear, we do not rule out the latter option but given the size of the sector in Scotland it might make it difficult to run such a body entirely on the proceeds of registration and inspection fees. The size of the sector is one of the factors that needs to be considered in deciding the way forward. The paper asks you to consider whether premises used for treatment by medical and dental practitioners who only offer private treatment and not NHS treatment, should fall within the scope of regulation.

The paper also considers the regulatory standards and sanctions that might be put in place. Again, views on these are invited. Please note that the scope of this consultation does not include issues relating to the regulation of health care professions or staff.

The paper should be read in conjunction with the separate consultation on the scope and structure of the proposed Scottish Commission for the Regulation of Care. This was published on 23 December 1999 and is available on the Scottish Executive website (www.scotland.gov.uk) or from Roddy Sibbald on 0131 244 5457.

In order to inform debate on the issues covered by this consultation paper, we would intend to follow normal practice of making available to the public, on request, copies of the comments received. We will assume that responses can be made publicly available. If respondents indicate that they wish all, or part, of their reply excluded from this arrangement, then confidentiality will be respected. We will also be pleased to arrange a meeting with anyone who would like to discuss any of the issues raised by the consultation paper. A summary of the comments received will be published and once a decision has been taken on the way forward we will also publish details of the proposals and how the work will be taken forward.

This consultation paper is available on the Scottish Executive website as above. Comments should be sent to Uriel Jamieson. Scottish Executive Health Department, Health Care Policy Division, 2E (North), St Andrew’s House, Regent Road, Edinburgh, EHI 3DG or by e-mail at uriel.jamieson@scotland.gov.uk. We would welcome comments by 2 May 2000.

Yours faithfully

MISS T TEALE

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