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Health and Social Care Bill

My Lords, in the absence of my noble friend Lady Cumberlege, I shall speak to Amendment 50. The board has a duty towards improvement in the quality of services, in particular the prevention and treatment of illness, and the protection of and improvements to public health. The board must have regard to documents, "““published by the Secretary of State for the purpose of this section””," and NICE quality standards as appropriate. So far, so good, but what is completely omitted from this process is input in the form of the voice of the public and of patients—that of HealthWatch England. This organisation is best placed to look at how services improve on the ground. Its role is to gather evidence from patients about services and then to offer advice to the board, so the omission seems quite strange. I wonder if my noble friend could confirm that this is actually an accidental omission. We know that the patient is seen to be paramount throughout the Bill, so it seems odd that the patient is missed out of this element. I would also be grateful if he could confirm that HealthWatch England will be adequately resourced and able to use information and advice from local healthwatch.