Health and Social Care Bill

Health and Social Care Bill

Medicine The Health and Social Care Bill will assure safe and qualtiy care for all patients and users. It will deliver the commitments that Ministers have made to introduce a new regulator with tougher powers to deal with the safety and quality of care. It will also deliver the Governments manifesto commitment ‘to strengthen clinical governance and the regulation of the healthcare professions to ensure professional activity is more accountable to the public. I know that the impact on Hove and Portslade will be great. The improvements promised in this bill will bring about positive change in the health care arena that will allow for quality care within my constituency for everyone. The main provisions of the Bill are to introduce:

Care Quality Commission

The Care Quality Commission will have a key role in tackling and preventing Healthcare Associated Infections through annual infection control inspections;

The new regulator will focus on safety and quality across health and adult social care services, in both the NHS and the independent sector;

It will play an important role in supporting patient choice, through providing information on the performance of providers of adult social care and health care;

The Care Quality Commission will have new powers requiring providers of health services and adult social care to register with the Commission;

The Regulator will have tougher powers, backed by fines, to inspect, investigate and intervene where hospitals are failing to meet hygiene requirements and play a key role in tackling and preventing Healthcare associated infections (HCAI’s).

The new regulator will be formed by bringing together the experience and expertise of Healthcare Commission, Commission for Social Care Inspection and the Mental Health Act Commission.

Professional Regulation

Following the inquiry into the case of Harold Shipman and the manifesto commitment to strengthen clinical governance, there will be reform of the system of professional regulation to ensure it earns and sustains the confidence of patients, professionals and Parliament

Health in pregnancy Grant

This will implement the 2006 pre-Budget Report commitment to extend financial support to expectants mothers in the final weeks of pregnancy by creating a health in pregnancy grant.
This measure aims to help all expectant mothers with the costs of a healthy diet and lifestyle in the later stages of pregnancy. Supported by maternal health advice from a health professional, it is designed to support the expectant mother’s individual health needs during the pregnancy.

Health protection

To provide an updated and comprehensive set of public health measures to help prevent or control the spread of large-scale infection or contamination, which presents or could present significant harm to human health.

The Bill also contains a number of other measures, which will improve health and social care. These measures include:

Create powers for the Secretary of State to fund social enterprises;

Introduce powers to weigh and measure pupils, and in particular provide feedback to parents as part of the National Child Measurement Programme.

Abolish the National Biological Standards Board and transfers its functions to the Health Protection Agency