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Recovery of Health Services Charges (Northern Ireland) Order 2006

We too support this order, but we are not entirely clear about one point. Will this extend to clinical negligence cases? If so, it could well be counter-productive and liable to set community doctors and hospital doctors against each other. Perhaps I may give an example. Under the proposals, could a GP working in the health service be sued by a patient for a delay in diagnosing a condition that is subsequently picked up in A&E and treated in hospital, and therefore be liable to pay tens of thousands of pounds to the hospital? That cannot be the intention of these provisions and I would be grateful if the Minister could outline his thinking on this point.