Private Medicine Regulation

Introduction

The Independent Sector Working Group is a working group of the Forum considering complaints handling and the complaints/litigation interface in the independent healthcare sector.

Background

The establishment of this Working Group was stimulated by the perceived need to improve complaints handling and the complaints/litigation interface in the private healthcare sector, and to ensure that the principles enunciated in the Forum’s Pre-Action Protocol for the Resolution of Clinical Disputes are applied to any process adopted in the sector.

Remit

In the context of the Department of Health’s consultation document: ‘Regulating Private and Voluntary Healthcare’, the Working Group was asked, firstly, to liaise with other organisations, including the British Medical Association (BMA) and the Independent Healthcare Association (IHA), on the development of a single, comprehensive approach to complaint resolution for all private hospitals.

Secondly, the Group was asked to consider how to apply the approach to doctors and other health professionals working independently of the NHS and private hospitals (i.e. those units, clinics and practices not covered by the IHA).

Programme of Work

In the first part of the programme, the Working Group worked closely with the BMA and IHA both of whom, in the early stages, had their own proposals for a code of practice for handling patient complaints in independent hospitals. A number of meetings were held, as well as a conference, half of which was devoted to this issue. In the end, after significant modification, the IHA produced a Code of Practice which has now being piloted within IHA hospitals, reviewed.and fully implemented.

The second part of the programme is to take the patient complaints agenda forward in other parts of the independent sector which do not come under the aegis of the IHA or have the organisational support of independent hospitals. In this work the Working Group, as well as keeping its BMA and IHA representation, also liaised with representatives of the General Dental Council, the British Dental Association and the Independent Doctors’ Forum (members attached).

The draft document, has now been approved by the Forum after wide consultation with Associate Member organisations and circulation for comment to some 300 private clinics and practices. It has recently been sent to the National Care Standards Commission and the Commission for Health Improvement for comment and, hopefully, approval as a practical Code of Guidance for the independent sector.

Further Information

Further information may be obtained from the Chairman of the Working Group:

Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen at:

BUPA
BUPA House
15-19 Bloomsbury Way
London WC1A 2BA
Tel: 020 7656 2037
Fax: 020 7656 2708
E-mail: vallanca@bupa.com

Dr Andrew Vallance-Owen

June 2002

Working Party