(1)Subject to section 63 and to this section, if the Secretary of State is satisfied in the case of a health service hospital that it is reasonable to do so, he may—
(a)authorise accommodation and services at the hospital in question to be made available for resident patients to such extent as he may determine ;
(b)determine the charges payable in respect of such patients in accordance with the following provisions of this section, and recover those charges,
and, on an undertaking being given by or on behalf of such patients to pay such charges, that accommodation and those services shall be available for them.
(2)The Secretary of State may allow accommodation and services to which an authorisation under subsection (1) relates to be made available in connection with the treatment, in pursuance of arrangements made by a medical practitioner or dental practitioner serving whether in a honorary or paid capacity on the staff of a health service hospital, of private patients of that practitioner as resident patients.
(3)The Secretary of State, for the purpose of determining charges to be paid under subsection (1)—
(a)may classify the health service hospitals, and may, in the case of each class, determine in respect of each period of 12 months beginning with 1st April first falling after the date on which the determination is made the charges to be paid under that subsection in respect of accommodation and services provided during that period, at a hospital falling within that class;
(b)in determining such charges in respect of a period the Secretary of State shall have regard, so far as is reasonably practicable, to the total cost (exclusive of costs appearing to him to be properly attributable to capital account) which, by reference to facts known to him at the time of the determination, it is estimated will be incurred during that period in the provision for resident patients of services at hospitals falling within that class; and
(c)may include in any such charges, in such cases as appear to him fit, such amounts as appear to him proper and reasonable to be included by way of contribution to expenditure appearing to him to be properly attributable to capital account.
(4)The Secretary of State may under subsection (3) determine different charges for different accommodation and for different services and in relation to different circumstances.
(5)The Secretary of State may allow such deduction as he thinks proper from the amount of a charge due by virtue of an undertaking given under this section by, or in respect of, any patient—
(a)in respect of treatment given to the patient under subsection (2); and
(b)in respect of any period during which the accommodation to which the undertaking relates is temporarily vacated by the patient.
(6)Nothing in this section prevents accommodation from being made available for a patient other than one mentioned in subsection (1) if the use of that accommodation is needed more urgently for him on medical grounds than for a patient so mentioned, and no other suitable accommodation is available.