Health and Social Care Bill

I have listened closely to the noble Baroness. I should perhaps add that within these Benches we discussed, and at one stage talked to Monitor about, the possibility of an individual cap for hospitals outside London. I completely take the noble Baroness’s point that in places such as Newcastle the figure for private patients is less than 2 per cent—even though the hospital there is renowned. One can think of many similar examples. We would therefore be perfectly open to reaching an agreement under which Monitor was responsible for there being lower caps in different parts of the country. The proposal that the number of patients from the NHS should be greater than the number from the private sector is an overall statement of principle that virtually every hospital can easily meet. We hope that it might, among other things, disincline our friends from the competition area from deciding that foundation trusts were undertakings and not private agencies.