[Metrobeans]

B451 - Healthcare Ratings System Bill 2012, TSR Government

Healthcare Ratings System Act 2012

An Act implementing a new standard rating system for all publicly owned healthcare establishments.

BE IT ENACTED by The Queen's most Excellent Majesty, by and with the advice and consent of the Commons in this present Parliament assembled, in accordance with the provisions of the Parliament Acts 1911 and 1949, and by the authority of the same, as follows:-

1. New Healthcare Ratings System (HRS)
(1) A new rating system replaces any previous system of grading publicly owned healthcare facilities. The rating system is as follows-
Each variation of publicly owned healthcare establishment will be graded as below out of 10. The minimum score being 1, the maximum being 10.
Key
9 or 10= Excellent
7 or 8 = Good
5 or 6 = Satisfactory
3 or 4 = Poor
1 or 2 = Awful

Each different establishment will be graded on the categories shown below (some may vary, e.g. be present for GP surgeries but not Hospitals), and an average will be worked out to gain the total score.
Hospitals-Categories
• Standard of Patient Care in general wards
• Standard of Patient Care in specialist wards (where present)
• Cleanliness of general wards
• Cleanliness of specialist wards (e.g. cancer wards) (where present)
• Cleanliness of Operating Theatre (where operating theatre is present)
• Standard of food
• Patient satisfaction (to be assessed via a survey given to the family of the patient and the patient themselves, with an average then to be worked out)
• Standard of general equipment
• Standard of specialist equipment (where present)
• Attention given to staff safety in general wards
• Attention given to staff safety in specialist wards (e.g. radiation from chemotherapy, where present)
• Attention given to patient safety in general wards
• Attention given to patient safety in specialist wards (where present)
• Success rate of operations
• Standard of customer service (reception role/jobs)

GP Surgeries- Categories
• Standard of patient care
• Cleanliness of environment
• Accuracy of diagnosis’ (to be worked out by subtracting the number of cases which have been proved diagnosed wrong by another GP or hospital from the total number of diagnosis’ made at the GP surgery. This number will then be converted to a fraction /100)
• Standard of Customer service (reception jobs)

A new team of inspectors will be created from current inspectors of the health service in order to carry out these inspections. The team will be trained by a chief inspector, on what makes what grade, and will then grade each facility based on their opinion of how it adheres to said standards. These inspectors will then receive yearly refresher courses, in order to keep the standards expected fresh in their minds.

(2) For the purposes of this Act-
“GP Surgery” Refers to any surgery where only diagnoses are made, and no treatment is received. In dual hospital-surgery facilities, the two are rated separately
“Hospital” refers to any establishment where treatment is given for illnesses diagnosed by a GP Surgery
"Inspector" refers to somebody already employed by the NHS to inspect facilities.

2. Enforcement and Punishment
(1) The enforcement of this Act is the responsibility of the Health Department solely, and assessments will be carried out by trained Healthcare Inspectors. They will score out of 10 based on their opinion, but will be shown example scenarios with the scores they should receive during their training.
(2) Inspectors need give no warning of their arrival, they will simply show an official badge to the head of the facility and begin their inspection at once, so as to gain an impression of what the hospital is like on an everyday basis.
(3) The Secretary of State will be granted the power to make exemptions to this Act as he finds necessary by Order.
(4) Facilities found to have a rating of “3 or less” will be placed under new administration. Facilites with a rating of “5 or less” will receive inspections every 3 months, rather than once a year, until they have reached a rating of “6 or above”. Once said rating has been achieved, inspections every 3 months will continue for the next 9 months, to ensure standards do not fall.

3. Commencement, short title and extent
(1) This Act may be cited as the Health Rating System Act 2012
(2) This bill shall extend to the United Kingdom; and
(3) Shall come into force immediately following Royal Assent.

NOTES

The current system of ratings is “ Excellent, Good, Fair, Weak, Double Weak”. This system is far less conclusive, and it is unclear as to how far into the rating said facility is.

SECOND READING

i) detail of punishment added
ii)more detail of what is considered "failing" added
iii) Notes now included

[SciFiRory]

No.

[Mechie]

Err no. I don't agree with the content, and I'd thought it could've at least been formatted correctly for being put to vote.

[Moleman1996]

(Original post by davidmarsh01)
Err no. I don't agree with the content, and I'd thought it could've at least been formatted correctly for being put to vote.

Haven't had time to do it, so once again apologies for the poor formatting.

[RoryS]

Definite no - do not like the concept and believe that the formatting should be better in time for the vote.

[Maddog Jones]

Voted no, as have most others. Yet another shambolic rejected bill, by this shambolic government (hopefully soon to be rejected too).

[Mechie]

(Original post by Maddog Jones)
Voted no, as have most others. Yet another shambolic rejected bill, by this shambolic government (hopefully soon to be rejected too).

Steady on I think this bill is well intentioned, but I don't think it's been thought through, and I don't think it would work at all. The government has hardly been shambolic either, sure they've done a lot of things I don't agree with, but they've not exactly been shambolic, that's somewhat of an exaggeration to say the least.

[Maddog Jones]

(Original post by davidmarsh01)
Steady on I think this bill is well intentioned, but I don't think it's been thought through, and I don't think it would work at all. The government has hardly been shambolic either, sure they've done a lot of things I don't agree with, but they've not exactly been shambolic, that's somewhat of an exaggeration to say the least.

I'd say they're shambolic. They weren't elected (even their leader said they were 'subverting the will of the people'), their bills have been heavily partisan, and they haven't sought to negotiate them through properly (like this one), leading to masses of rejections.

After all the crap they gave Labour when we were in government, I think mass criticism of their effectiveness as a government - or a lack of it - is entirely justified.

[Metrobeans]

The noes have it, the noes have it!