Government Announces NHS Co-payments Review

During Health Questions in Parliament on Tuesday, in response to a question from John Baron MP (Billericay), Secretary of State Alan Johnson introduced a review of NHS policy on co-payments. This followed the widely-reported recent case of John’s late constituent Mrs Linda O’Boyle. In his follow-up question, John welcomed the news but warned that this review must not be allowed to kick the issue into the long grass. Alan Johnson responded by saying that Cancer Tsar Mike Richards will report back in October.

Commenting afterwards, John said: “I very much welcome this review, as will campaigners up and down the country. It does suggest movement by the Government. The ban on co-payments was cruel, because it resulted in NHS care being withdrawn from dying patients, and illogical because co-payments already exist in the NHS. I hope Mike Richards takes these points into account.

“My only concern is that the review puts this issue on the back-burner, although we have been promised a report in October. The case of Linda O’Boyle proves that patients want to benefit from co-payments now – not in a year’s time.

“I shall be monitoring progress closely and hope to meet with Mike Richards shortly.”

Terms of Reference for the Richards review:

The Review will be led by Professor Mike Richards, National Clinical Director for cancer, and will report by October 2008 to the Secretary of State for Health. The Review’s objectives are:

- To examine current policy relating to patients who choose to pay privately for drugs that are not funded on the NHS and who, as a result, are required to pay for the care that they would otherwise have received free on the NHS.
- To make recommendations on whether and how policy or guidance could be clarified or improved.
- In making recommendations, to take into account:
the importance of enabling patients to have choice and personal control over their healthcare; and
the need to uphold the founding principle of the NHS that treatment is based on clinical need not ability to pay, and to ensure that NHS services are fair to both patients and taxpayers.

The Review will take account of:
- the Government’s wider strategy for improving the quality and effectiveness of NHS services; and
- developing policy and practice arising from the NHS Next Stage Review and Constitution.