Health Bill [HL]

I have already said that there are other domains in quality and that value for money is an important domain. We are starting here and, initially, within the quality cadre, we want to focus purely on the safety and experience parameters and then expand that to effectiveness. I agree with that. I just do not want a mixture of financial account and quality account with some other parameters that will diffuse or contaminate—if I can use that word—the purpose of the quality account as I see it and as it has been developed from the bottom up. I hope I have reassured the noble Lord, Lord Patel, that safety is part of the quality definition. As I have described in the Bill, safety is one of the domains. I am very grateful to him for his contribution and to the National Patient Safety Agency for taking on some of the outputs of High Quality Care for All. A few have already been mentioned, such as the never events, which we see as part of quality improvement, rather than the quality accounts, and the reference to the checklist. I turn to the point raised on the amendment tabled by the noble Baroness, Lady Greengross, which referred to the address by the noble Baroness, Lady Barker, on dignity and respect. That absolutely should not be an indicator because it is not something you can measure; that is part of the patient experience. There are ways in which one can measure that and it is not ticking the box while the patient is asleep or in bed receiving a treatment. Compassion and dignity—the way in which the patient has been cared for—are two indicators that are very much a part of the patient experience domain of quality improvement. I hope I have reassured the Committee and explained what the quality accounts are. I hope, with that reassurance, that the amendments will be withdrawn.