Downing Street Says » Southern Cross

Asked if there was any contingency planning in the case of Southern Cross Healthcare, the PMS said that there had been discussions between Southern Cross (SC) and the Department of Health (DH) for some time. This was something that DH had been monitoring very carefully and they would continue to do so.

Asked if LA’s had a duty of care and if the Government would offer them financial help, the PMS said that SC, its landlords and those with a stake in the business needed to put in place a plan to ensure that that company was on a firm footing. That process was happening. Our role was to ensure that we kept in close contact with what was going on, and to keep monitoring the situation. We would do what we needed to do to ensure that there was effective protection for anyone affected but, at the moment we needed to let the process continue.

Asked if that meant that the Government would be prepared to put up extra cash, the PMS said that it meant that we would make sure there was effective protection. There was a process underway where SC, its landlords and others with a stake in this business were discussing how best it could discharge its responsibilities. We were not directly involved in that process, but clearly we were monitoring it very closely. Our concern was to make sure that there was effective protection in place for residents who might be affected, but we did not want to pre-empt those discussions.

Asked if that meant keeping residents in the physical location they were currently in or moving them somewhere else, the PMS said that it may well be in the best interests of residents to keep them in the same place, but we had to look at that very carefully and we had to let this process continue with the company and various other interested parties. Our concern was to make sure that these people were cared for effectively.

Asked if the money would come from a reserve if the Government put up hard cash, the PMS said that he didn’t think there was a great deal more he could say. Clearly there was a process underway, and our view was that providing a commentary on that process was not necessarily in the interests of residents.

Put that the Government was clearly not going to dump the burden on LA’s, the PMS said that we were clear that we were putting the interests of residents at the top of the list.

Asked if residents who were worried should understand what Government was presumably saying was that there was a guarantee that they would not lose out, the PMS said that that was exactly right we would ensure the interests of residents were protected.

Asked what lessons that Prime Minister had learned from the SC case regarding the role of the private sector in healthcare, the PMS said that this was something that was being discussed as part of the listening exercise. The PMS said that there was also a review underway on social care and social care provision, which was concluding in the next couple of months.

Asked if the Prime Minister thought there were any particular to be learnt, the PMS said that where there were lessons to learn we would clearly learn those lessons. It was not a new thing for private sector providers to be involved in healthcare in this country. The important thing was that there were effective protections in place. In the case of social care and the SC situation there was a regulator, the CQC, and there were duties for LA’s. However, we were clear that there were issues with the way social care more generally was provided in this country, which was why we were reviewing it.

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» Wednesday, June 1, 2011

Southern Cross

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