Private earnings cap debated in Commons

MPs have been debating whether the cap on hospitals’ private earnings should be removed. The new Health & Social Care Bill would allow foundation trusts to earn more, with no limit on their private income.

Liberal Democrat MP Andrew George said the move could be a ‘catastrophic’ policy, saying: “If NHS foundation trusts ... can muscle in on the private market then private providers will feel more justified, and the courts could well agree, in arguing the right to compete for far more NHS services.

“Once you go down this particular road there's a lot of conundrums which arise which need to be sorted out. I don't believe the government entirely have a handle on this issue.”

Shadow health minister Emily Thornberry called for the plan to lift the cap to be scrapped.

She said: “It will mean that our National Health Service, where people are tended by our NHS-trained doctors, using our NHS equipment, will be filled up with private patients because they will be able to pay more.

“And hard-pressed hospitals, facing increasingly large shortfalls, desperately trying to balance their books, are bound to take in increasing numbers of private patients.”

Others argue that it will remove an unnecessary legal curb for Foundation Trusts.

The Bill continues to be debated today, with the issue of independent counselling for women seeking abortion still to be discussed.