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Health and Social Care Bill

Perhaps I may add a small point. I do not know how many physicians in anaesthesia are employed in operating theatres in private hospitals, where an enormous amount of private surgery is done. One of the main reasons for people going to a private hospital is for surgery—particularly elective orthopaedic surgery. Therefore, although I cannot put any figures on this, I do not think that it is correct to assume that these people are necessarily operating only in the NHS and are subject to current NHS structures. In the new world where we will have a broad range of providers, it will become even more important to know that there is a minimum standard and that all the people at each step of the way will be answerable. The patient may well choose to go to an organisation where these people are employed but the patient will not know that. No one gives him a list and says, ““Of all these people looking after you, these will be statutorily registered but these may or may not be on a voluntary register””. If we are thinking about patients taking informed decisions regarding their future, I suggest that the coroners’ reports that we have had to date should already be sounding alarm bells.