Tougher controls on private health care

NHS safety standards watchdogs are to monitor private hospitals under Government plans prompted by the death of a young mother at an exclusive clinic.

Laura Touche, 31, died nine days after giving birth to twin boys at the Portland Hospital, west London, a place popular with celebrity mothers such as Victoria Beckham. An inquest jury last week ruled that neglect at the hospital had contributed to Mrs Touche's death.

Alan Milburn, the Health Secretary, is now considering merging public and private sector inspection bodies to ensure patients get proper health care regardless of where they go for treatment.

From April, the new National Care Standards Commission will be regulating the private health care sector. But an aide to Mr Milburn said discussions were also taking place on the need for "organisational integration" between the new body and the NHS regulator, the Commission for Health Improvement.

The clamour for more rigorous standards in private health care followed last Friday's inquest which found "catastrophic" error by the midwife who failed to check Mrs Touche's blood pressure and so missed signs of the brain haemorrhage she had hours after the birth. The coroner, Dr Susan Hungerford, said there were issues about the Portland Hospital that were "rightly the source of public concern".

Merging the two standards watchdogs would mean, for the first time, private hospitals having to meet the same standards as the NHS. Last week Mr Milburnsaid failing hospitals could be run by managers from private industries, charities or universities, while the best hospitals would get more freedom to become self-governing "foundation" hospitals able to spend their money as they wished.

NHS hospitals are already using parts of the private sector to give treatment in an attempt to cut waiting times and patient lists.

The Government appreciates, however, that public confidence in private health care must be addressed. A source said: "The more NHS patients are treated free in the private sector, the more important that the private sector is properly regulated." It is likely the new care commission, the first regulator for the private sector for 150 years, will run for a while before any formal merger or structural changes.

* Glasgow's Victoria Infirmary remained closed to non-emergency admissions yesterday as staff tackled a viral infection which has hit 157 staff and patients. The spread of the "winter vomiting" virus follows an unrelated salmonella outbreak.