Bid to make safety law for private care

By Olive Carterton

Private healthcare providers are backing doctors’ bodies in a bid to get a proposed new Health Service Safety Investigations Bill (HSSIB) to expand its remit to cover both NHS and independently funded care.

Independent Healthcare Prov­iders Network (IHPN) chief executive David Hare argues that with independent healthcare providers delivering over two million acute procedures every year, it is vital that privately funded care is covered by the legislation.

He said: ‘The health service has made huge strides in recent years in taking a more systems-based approach to safety and we urge the Government to amend the Bill and bring it into line so that all patients, regardless of how they access their healthcare, are able to benefit from this shared-system learning.’