What Other Regulators Can Teach Monitor: The Expertise of a Sector Regulator Provides Patients with Some Protection

Dixon, Anna, New Statesman (1996)

Much of the opposition to the coalition government's proposals for the NHS has focused on the role of competition, in partitular the powers of Monitor to enforce competition law. Although some of Montier's functions - such as price-setting and compliance with the principles and rules for cooperation and competition-already exist within the Department of Health, putting them on a statutory footin within a powerful independent regulator has caused alarm. Following initial concern about Monitor's primary duty, which included "promoting competition", amendments were made to make it clear that it is there to protect and promote the interests of patients in the health care market.

The Health and Social Care Bill draws heavily on the legislative framework used for regulators in other areas of the econmy, such as telecommunications, utilities and railways. In part, this was born out of Andrew Langley's experience of the privatization and regulation of utilities in the mid-1980s when he was princepal private secretary to Norman Debit (who was secretary …

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Publication information: Article title: What Other Regulators Can Teach Monitor: The Expertise of a Sector Regulator Provides Patients with Some Protection. Contributors: Dixon, Anna - Author. Magazine title: New Statesman (1996). Volume: 140. Issue: 5083 Publication date: December 12, 2011. Page number: S14+. © Not available. COPYRIGHT 2011 Gale Group.

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