Health Services and Public Health Act 1968
Health Services and PublicHealth Act 1968
1968 CHAPTER 46
An Act to amend the National Health Service Act 1946 and the National Health Service (Scotland) Act 1947 and make other amendments connected with the national health service; to make amendments connected with local authorities' services under the National Assistance Act 1948; to amend the law relating to notifiable diseases and food poisoning; to amend the Nurseries and Child-Minders Regulation Act 1948; to amend the law relating to food and drugs; to enable assistance to be given to certain voluntary organisations; to enable the Minister of Health and Secretary of State to purchase goods for supply to certain authorities; to make other amendments in the law relating to the public health; and for purposes connected with the matters aforesaid.
[26th July 1968]
Be it enacted by the Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Lords Spiritual and Temporal, and Commons, in this present Parliament assembled, and by the authority of the same, as follows:—
Part I
Amendments connected with the national health Service
Hospital and specialist Services
1 Accommodation and treatment, at hospital providing hospital and specialist services, of persons as private resident patients.
(1) If the Minister is satisfied, in the case of a hospital providing hospital and specialist services, that it is reasonable so to do he may, subject to the provisions of this section, authorise accommodation and services at the hospital to be made, to such extent as he may determine, available for resident patients who undertake, or in respect of whom an undertaking is given, to pay such charges as the Minister may in accordance with the following provisions of this section determine, and the Minister may recover those charges.
(2) The Minister may allow accommodation and services to which an authorisation under the foregoing subsection relates to be made available in connection with the treatment, in pursuance of arrangements made by a medical practitioner or dental practitioner serving, whether in an honorary or paid capacity, on the staff of a hospital providing hospital and specialist services, of private patients of that practitioner as resident patients.
(3) The Minister, for the purpose of determining charges to be paid under subsection (1) above, may classify the hospitals providing hospital and specialist services and may, in the case of each class, determine, in respect of each period of twelve months beginning with 1st April first falling after the date on which the determination is made, the charges to be paid under subsection (1) above in respect of accommodation and services provided during that period at a hospital falling within that class: and in determining such charges in respect of a period the Minister shall have regard, so far as reasonably practicable, to the total cost (exclusive of costs appearing to him to be properly attributable to capital account) which, by reference to facts known to him at the time of the determination, it is estimated will be incurred during that period in the provision for resident patients of hospital and specialist services at hospitals falling within that class, and may include in any such charges, in such cases as appear to him fit, such amounts as appear to him proper and reasonable to be included by way of contribution to expenditure appearing to him to be properly attributable to capital account.
(4) The Minister may under the foregoing subsection determine different charges for different accommodation and for different and in relation to different circumstances.
(5) The Minister may allow such deduction from the amount of a charge due by virtue of an undertaking given under this section by, or in respect of, a patient as he thinks proper—
(a ) in respect of treatment given to the patient under subsection (2) above; and
(b ) in respect of any period during which the accommodation to which the undertaking relates is temporarily vacated by the patient.
(6) Nothing in this section shall prevent accommodation from being made available for a patient other than one mentioned in subsection (1) above if the use thereof is needed more urgently for him on medical grounds than for a patient so mentioned and no other suitable accommodation is available.
(7) This and the next following section shall have effect in Scotland in place of section 5 of the 1947 Act.
2 Accommodation and treatment, at hospitals providing hospital and specialist services, of persons as private non-resident patients.
(1) If the Minister is satisfied, in the case of a hospital providing hospital and specialist services, that it is reasonable so to do, he may authorise accommodation and services at the hospital to be made, to such extent as he may determine, available in connection with the treatment, in pursuance of arrangements made by a medical practitioner or dental practitioner serving, whether in an honorary or paid capacity, on the staff of any such hospital, of private patients of that practitioner otherwise than as resident patients, being patients who undertake, or in respect of whom an undertaking is given, to pay, in respect of the provision of any such accommodation and any such services, such charges as the Minister may determine, and the Minister may recover those charges.
(2) The Minister may under the foregoing subsection determine different charges for different accommodation and for different services and in relation to different circumstances.
(3) No accommodation and no services shall be so made available under subsection (1) above as to prejudice persons availing themselves of services at the hospital otherwise than as private patients.
3 Transitional provisions relating to accommodation and treatment of private patients in England and Wales.
(1) The two last foregoing sections shall have effect in place of section 5 of the 1946 Act, and, except as hereinafter mentioned, that section shall accordingly cease to have effect.
(2) The said section 5 shall, by virtue of this section, continue to have effect in relation to an arrangement in force immediately before the coming into operation of this section for the provision under that section of accommodation for a patient; but if, at any time, the charges payable by virtue of the undertaking given under that section for payment of charges relating to the accommodation and services provided for the patient are higher than the charges which would, at that time, be payable if the accommodation and services were provided under section 1, or, as the case may be, section 2 of this Act, and an undertaking is given, by or in respect of the patient, for the payment of charges determined in accordance with the said section 1 or, as the case may be, the said section 2, then, as from the date on which that undertaking becomes effective, the said section 5 shall cease to have effect in relation to the said arrangement, and the said section 1 or, as the case may be, section 2 shall have effect accordingly.
(3) Charges prescribed by regulations in force under the said section 5 immediately before the coming into operation of this section shall, in respect of accommodation and services provided under section 1 or 2 of this Act during the period ending with 31st March next following that date, be deemed to have been determined under the former section or the latter, as the case may be.
(4) This section does not apply to Scotland.
4 Amendment as to fixing of charges for accommodation made available on part payment.
(1) Section 4 of the 1946 Act (which empowers the Minister to make accommodation in single rooms or small wards available for patients who undertake, or in respect of whom an undertaking is given, to pay for the accommodation such charges as may be determined in the prescribed manner) shall, in relation to undertakings given after the coming into operation of this section, have effect as if, for the words ‘determined in the prescribed manner’, there were substituted the words ‘determined by the Minister’.
(2) The Minister may allow such deductions as he thinks fit from the amount of a charge due by virtue of an undertaking given (whether before or after the coming into operation of this section) under the said section 4 to be paid for accommodation in respect of any period during which the accommodation is temporarily vacated by the person for whom it is made available.
(3) Charges prescribed by regulations under the said section 4 which are in force immediately before the coming into operation of this section shall, in relation to undertakings given after the coming into operation of this section, be deemed to have been determined by the Minister under that section as amended by this section.
(4) This section shall have effect in Scotland as if, for any reference...
To continue reading
Request your trial