National Health Service Act 1977

60 Additional provision as to charges under s. 58

(1) There shall be made in respect of any exercise of the section 58 power such charges as the Secretary of State may in accordance with subsections (2) and (3) below determine.

(2) Without prejudice to the generality of the Secretary of State's section 58 power to make and recover charges for any use which he may under that section allow to be made of any accommodation or services provided under this Act, the Secretary of State may in pursuance of subsection (1) above determine different rates or scales of charges—

(a) for different accommodation or services at different health service hospitals or different classes of such hospitals;

(b) for different forms or classes of treatment;

(c) in relation to patients who are, and patients who are not, ordinarily resident in Great Britain ;

(d) generally for different accommodation and for different services and in relation to different circumstances.

(3) The charges determined in pursuance of subsection (1) above—

(a) shall be such as will ensure, so far as is practicable, that no increase in the expenses incurred by the Secretary of State under this Act results from any exercise of the section 58 power ;

(b) shall include such amounts as appear to the Secretary of State proper and reasonable in respect of costs appearing to him to be properly attributable to capital account; and

(c) in the case of charges for services provided to a private patient at a health service hospital by a whole-time consultant, shall be not less than would be charged by a part-time consultant for providing similar services in similar circumstances to a private patient of his.

(4) Where a health authority receives any sum charged under section 58 for services provided to a private patient by a whole-time consultant—

(a) the authority shall retain that sum and use it for the purposes of research and development in medicine or dentistry, but

(b) if the services in question were provided by a consultant employed by a medical or dental school or university, the authority shall, if so directed by the Secretary of State, pay the sum to that school or university to use for those purposes.

(5) Nothing in this section or in section 59 above prevents the Secretary of State from allowing any medical or dental practitioner employed by a health authority to make use of any accommodation or services provided by virtue of this Act to the extent to which the practitioner would be entitled to make such use under the terms of that employment if those terms were as they were or would have been at the passing of the [1976 c. 83.] Health Services Act 1976.

(6) In this section—

• " health authority " includes a preserved Board ;

• " preserved Board " has the meaning given by section 15(6) of the [1973 c. 32.] National Health Service Reorganisation Act 1973;

• " whole-time consultant " and " part-time consultant " mean respectively a consultant employed whole-time or part-time by a health authority, medical or dental school or university.